Emily Blunt “Loved the Modernity” of Prime Video’s Bold New Western ‘The English’

Where to Stream:

The English

Powered by Reelgood

The English is not your typical western. The Prime Video series follows British aristocrat Cornelia Locke (Emily Blunt) as she travels to the wild American frontiers to seek vengeance for her dead son. Her journey almost ends as soon as it begins, but she is saved by Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer), a Pawnee-born, retired U.S. soldier on his own mission. The two team up on a violent odyssey battling for their lives across the Old West.

The English is full of mesmerizing visuals, spectacular performances, and — as its name suggests — a distinctly fresh and European view of the extremely American western genre. The cast is full of British acting stars like Ciaran Hinds, Toby Jones, and Rafe Spall, characters literally play cricket for fun, and Cornelia herself gushes about the latest craze in 1890s London, astrology. British writer and director Hugo Blick told Decider that he specifically wanted to bring an “outsider view” to what he calls “the greatest American genre,” the western.

“I was a young man out in Montana. I sort of saw the dust of the last vestiges of the Old West if you will, as a kid there, both the benefits and some of the problems,” Blick said. “I knew I wanted to make a western and I had a specific individual knowledge of that. But I also love the European engagement with this picture; it has that kind of outsider view, which speaks to the golden age of the genre, the Antoni Manns, the George Stephens. But also I hope, kind of twists it and takes it into its own kind of individualism, its own voice. And I think that’s something to do with its outsider spirit.”

The show’s two heroes Cornelia Locke and Eli Whipp are both outsiders within their cultures and the world of The English. Whipp was born Pawnee, but eventually worked with the U.S. government, often fighting and killing fellow indigenous people. He’s warned early on in the series that while the white members of his unit might accept him as one of them, the rest of the colonizers expanding all over the United States won’t. It’s when Eli is captured and brutalized by one such racist villain that he meets Cornelia, who in turn, finds herself in a trap. Ciaran Hinds’s ruthless Richard M. Watts has lured Cornelia to a remote outpost to steal her money and murder her. First, though, he serves her a unique Western delicacy: calf testicles.

Emily Blunt in red dress in the dark in 'The English'
Photo: Prime Video

“It was one of my favorite scenes to shoot cause it was so funny,” Emily Blunt said. “I mean, we were hysterical. We were having to eat these fake calf testicles, which were like gelatin balls filled with condensed milk, which I hate. And so it was kind of gross and gag-worthy shooting it.”

“But I love that she just gamely goes for it. She picks up the challenge. He says to her, ‘That’s not the woman I expected,’ and she goes, ‘And you’re everything I’d expect of a man.’ I think it just speaks to that kind of inner strength and panache that she has as a person and that I think she’s just done being trodden on. I think there’s determination, this resilience in her that even comes in the form of her eating that calf testicle.”

Speaking of Cornelia’s “panache,” upon meeting Eli, she drops an unusual detail about herself. Namely that she’s a Scorpio. If you think that the reference to star signs is anachronistic, Blick said that Cornelia’s astro hobby was totally historically accurate.”Victorians became quite obsessed by it in the latter part of the 19th century so that was a very metropolitan thing,” Blick said.

Blunt said that she didn’t know much about star signs and was “really surprised” that detail was in Blick’s script.

“It’s what was such a joy about reading these things because [Blick] would just smuggle in these details that were very much truthful of the time. It was all the rage in London,” Blunt said. “Everyone was talking about their star signs and horoscopes.”

“I just think it’s funny that she kind of rather naively says to the man that knows more about the stars than anyone on earth, you know, ‘Hey I’m going to tell you all about it.’ A sort of thin, superficial outlook on it”

Chaske Spencer holding Emily Blunt in 'The English'
Photo: Prime Video

Blick explained to Decider that he decided to make Cornelia a Scorpio for two important reasons. One thematic and the other sentimental.

“If you take it for what it is and take it seriously, Scorpio’s a particularly vengeful character. It speaks to that specific nature of that vengeance in a later episode,” he said. “And then my mother was a Scorpio and I couldn’t think of a better hat tip to her than to make my lead character a Scorpio. My mother was also pretty terrifying, too, so no wonder. [laughs] So there we are.”

Blunt said, “I loved the modernity of those moments. It’s the beauty of what Hugo brings to it and it’s what all true of history. It is actually what people were talking about.”

Speaking of what rings true in The English, what about plucky English aristocrat Cornelia appealed to Eli Whipp? After all, Eli is determined to go on his journey alone. What changes his mind? (Besides knowing she’s a Scorpio?)

Chaske Spencer said, “I think he feels for her story, her plight. I think he relates to the loss that they both suffered and I think when they go on their journey, it helps open him up, to rebreathe life back into his life again.”

“There’s a line: ‘Sometimes you have to see a thing just to let it go.’ I love that line, because I think that’s what his main journey was to do before he met and crossed paths with Cornelia.”

Once Eli and Cornelia do team up, they find themselves struggling to survive the harsh Old West. There are action sequences galore, full of horseback riding and shootouts. But Spencer and Blunt’s favorite fight scene had nothing to do with guns. Rather something more low-fi.

“I love the one where the three gentlemen come up to us and then [Cornelia] takes them out with the bow and arrow, with archery,” Spencer said. “And I do this jump off the back of this horse.

“That was a cool move,” Blunt said.