Emily Blunt Loves That John Krasinski Cried Over ‘Mary Poppins Returns’

Earlier this week, John Krasinski stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show and admitted to feeling a whole lot of emotions when he first watched Mary Poppins Returns, the upcoming Disney sequel that puts his wife, Emily Blunt, in the titular role.

During an interview with ET, Blunt responded to Krasinksi’s emotional remarks with nothing but love and respect. “I love that, when guys cry,” Blunt said, “I think it’s a beautiful thing, [when they’re] not so tough, yeah!”

Blunt shed some light on Krasinski’s story, saying that it was Ben Whishaw‘s early musical moment that brought her husband to tears. Whishaw is portraying Michael Banks, who we remember from the original film as the young boy Mary Poppins looks after. Sadly, Poppins returns to the Banks family after Michael’s wife passes away.

“Ben Whishaw’s first song is so gorgeous when he’s talking about the loss of his wife,” explains Blunt, “I think [John] sort of cried from then on wards, you know. He’s still crying now.”

“He kept saying, ‘What’s happening to me?’ when he was watching it,” she added about her husband’s emotional experience.

During his interview with Ellen, Krasinski wanted the audience to know how great the film was (aside from all the tears). “It’s honestly one of the most beautiful films,” he explained, “exactly what everybody needs at the holidays. Pure joy.”

Blunt is taking over the role of the iconic nanny from Julie Andrews, who played the part in the original 1964 film. When it came to playing Mary, Blunt did her best to make the character her own.

“I’d seen it as a child,” she explained, “so I have this sort of searing memory of her, but didn’t want to watch it as an adult before playing her because I kind of knew I might be swayed by what Julie did and feel like I have to emulate or compromise what I was wanting to do with her, which I took from the books.”

While Andrews is not making an appearance in the film, the new version’s director, Rob Marshall (Chicago, Into the Woods), has assured Entertainment Weekly that the legendary access is “one thousand percent” on board with the film. In fact, the reason Marshall gave for Andrews’ decision to not appear in the film was to respect Blunt’s process.

We may not be getting a glimpse of Andrews, but Mary Poppins Returns will be bringing back a fan favorite: Dick Van Dyke. The new film is also set to star Emily Mortimer and Lin-Manual Miranda, and will feature appearances by Meryl Streep, Julie Walters, Colin Firth, Pixie Davies, Joel Dawson, Nathanael Saleh, Angela Lansbury and David Warner.

Mary Poppins Returns will be released in theaters everywhere on December 19, 2018.