Emily Blunt’s Kids Cried Seeing Her in ‘Jungle Cruise’ (Exclusive)

Emily Blunt is recalling a family-friendly movie of hers that nevertheless traumatized her kids. 

“They don’t love watching me on screen,” says Blunt, 41, of daughters Hazel, 9, and Violet, 7, who she shares with husband John Krasinski, 44. “Which I understand because I’m their mommy and it’s very strange to see me play someone else.”

That’s true even for movies aimed toward kids, like Disney’s 2011 hit The Muppets, 2018’s Mary Poppins Returns, or 2021’s Jungle Cruise, she tells PEOPLE. The latter film, costarring Dwayne Johnson, actually turned out to be a distressing viewing experience for her little ones.

“They’ve only seen Jungle Cruise once,” the Oppenheimer Oscar nominee reveals. “They didn’t like the underwater stuff where I’m trapped and I’m in peril.”

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In the action-comedy based on the Disneyland theme park ride of the same name, Blunt’s adventurer Dr. Lily Houghton professes that she can’t swim. The story takes place along the Amazon river where fantastically fearsome foes await, placing the character in several high-stakes underwater situations. 

Upon seeing her in danger, recalls Blunt with a frown, Hazel and Violet “started crying. They left the room.”

Ryan Gosling, Blunt’s costar in the stunt-heavy action-comedy The Fall Guy, agrees with their reaction. “I didn’t like that, either,” he tells Blunt. “That was upsetting for me to watch you like that!”

Similarly, Gosling’s daughters Esmeralda Amada, 9, and Amada Lee, 8, who he shares with longtime partner Eva Mendes, have concerns about his strange line of work. Going into production on The Fall Guy, “My kids didn’t want me to be set on fire,” the Barbie star tells PEOPLE. “They were like, ‘No. No fire.’ So I didn’t do it.”

In fact, he adds, his kids “don’t care” about the fact that he and Mendes, 50, appear on screen at all. “Eva was on an episode of Bluey,” recalls Gosling. “We both thought it was going to be huge,” but instead, “They were like, ‘Fast-forward through that part!’”

Blunt nods. Kids, she says, “don’t want you to be anything other than their parent.”

“They’re not into it,” agrees Gosling.

Of course, the stars themselves aren’t always thrilled about the potentially dangerous work sometimes required of moviemaking. Gosling admits that in The Fall Guy, he wore sunglasses during his scariest stunt — involving his character falling backwards on wires — to hide the genuine fear in his eyes. 

And family-friendly fare can involve wild stunt work, too, as Blunt reveals. “I did some wire stuff in Edge of Tomorrow, which was probably more dangerous, because I took some spills,” she reflects. “But with [Mary Poppins Returns], that entrance was very stressful for me.” 

The magical nanny’s entrance “had to start in the clouds and come all the way down” toward the ground, she explains. “And I’m supposed to walk effortlessly into my close-up as if it’s nothing. And I did three takes — and then I felt my tolerance go, ‘Pfft!’ and that was it. I was done.”

The Fall Guy, directed by David Leitch and written by Drew Pearce, is in theaters now.