Emily Blunt has a busy 2010 ahead of her, but first is spending the winter as the young Queen Victoria of England in the aptly titled indie ‘The Young Victoria.’ And reviews for Blunt’s performance in the film, which hits U.S. theaters Dec. 18, are nothing short of glowing.

“I think the challenge with [Victoria] was trying not to make her too arch and unapproachable,” Blunt told Moviefone at Thursday’s premiere of ‘The Young Victoria’ in Hollywood. “And [to] try and make her accessible for modern audiences, without losing the context of that environment. I wanted her to be slightly unreadable and ambiguous, because that is what people would say about her.”Blunt, who has been nominated for a British Independent Film Award for ‘Young Victoria,’ adds of the role: “They would say she was quite powerful and quite hard to read. I thought that was an interesting idea to work on. I think to play a character who is under that kind of duress and pressure, being watched by the whole world, that’s really a fun thing to do for an actress. I wanted to try and keep it ambiguous and real and not too on the nose.”

Variety wrote of Blunt, a Golden Globe winner for the TV movie ‘Gideon’s Daughter,’ in its review of ‘Young Victoria’: “Thanks to Blunt’s beautifully modulated turn, which balances royal reserve, girlish enthusiasm and lightly tempered steel, the film is in no way a morbid study in self-pity. The biggest compliment one can pay Blunt is that the more familiar Queen Victoria of later life can already be glimpsed in her perf without ever getting in the way of her youthful portrait.”

Blunt, who starred in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ and ‘Sunshine Cleaning,’ has an impressive slate of upcoming projects, including ‘The Wolfman,’ ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ and ‘The Adjustment Bureau.’

Director Jean-Marc Vallee says Blunt’s performance in ‘Young Victoria’ was not a team effort, but instead wholly Blunt. “It’s her, it’s her,” Vallee says. “I’m just there on the set to be faithful to the story, the level of emotion from one thing to the other … But it’s her thing. She is a clever actress, very precise, very meticulous, lots of research, lots of homework, instinct, talent. It was the best shooting experience of my life.”

Co-star Rupert Friend concurs, telling Moviefone, “Definitely the chance to work with Emily was a huge plus. I had been a huge fan of hers from afar for a while. I was very excited to have the opportunity to play opposite her. I saw her in ‘My Summer of Love,’ which I thought she was fantastic in. She actually went to school with a flatmate of mine. I sort of was aware of her. I thought she was an extraordinary actress.”

Source: Movie Fone

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