British actor Emily Blunt opened up on her lifelong struggle with stutter as she credited acting for helping her overcome the childhood speech disorder.
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While accepting the award for her work with the American Institute of Stuttering, in the recently-held ‘Power of Women’ event, celebrating female resilience, Emily Blunt, 40, said that she still struggles with stutter and considers herself a stutterer, as the ‘certain words will get stuck’.
Elaborating on the word ‘phone’, the ‘Oppenheimer’ actor said that it is a ‘bit of a nightmare’.
“I’m so grateful to accept this tonight,” she said. “I am grateful to shed light on [stuttering] because it is a disability that lives very often in the shadows alongside its great friends: fear and shame and humiliation,” Blunt continued with a mention that ‘stuttering affects about 3 million Americans’.
“It’s nearly always misidentified as a nervous disposition or a psychological issue. This is wrong. This is wrong. It is neurological, it’s biological, it’s often hereditary, and it’s not your fault,” the Golden Globe-winning actor pointed out the facts that she wished to have known through her childhood.
About the speech disorder, she explained, “It’s deeply emotional because a stutter, it’s like an imposter that’s living in your body who doesn’t pay rent ever. It completely and utterly misrepresents who you are as a person. It can limit you from getting a job no matter how qualified you are because you could be deemed unconvincing or off-putting or unintelligent. It can limit children from finding meaningful relationships, being bullied and cast out. It can limit you from finding love. And so the list of limitations of not being able to speak puts on you are far-reaching and they’re traumatizing.”
To conclude, Blunt urged, “Next time you meet someone who stutters, know that every word they say takes effort and courage. Look them in the eye, [and] be patient. Don’t tell them to slow down, or breathe, or spit it out.”
“It’s a neurological thing, it’s sort of a motor pathway thing. Don’t finish their sentences. They know what they want to say, they have so much to share. Just be patient,” she advised.
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