Wild Mountain Thyme took A Quiet Place actress Emily Blunt and Fifty Shades of Grey’s Christian Grey Jamie Dornan to the rolling green hills of Ireland to play neighboring farmers who’ve exchanged wistful glances from across their yards since childhood. The romance from Moonstruck writer John Patrick Shanley has the pair interacting with a slew of adorable livestock from the region. Blunt’s Rosemary often takes epic rides on her horse and Dornan’s Anthony rehearses fictional proposals to a sweet donkey.
The new movie whisks audiences away to a life much simpler than many of us know. No morning commute or streetlights, just you and the animals and a nearby pub. When speaking to Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan about Wild Mountain Thyme, it sounds like working with animals wasn’t quite as cute as it looks on screen. Dornan gave this hilarious yet honest answer that had Blunt and myself cracking up:
I plan to only work with animals going forward. I don’t really see the point of humans in movies anymore. No, you know, to be honest with you, both Emily and I are really allergic to horses so we just antihistamine dumped in our eyeballs just dozily wandering around the fields waiting for someone to say action. So it was kind of this strange experience. But, you know I love animals, they just make my eyes turn red and I get hives all over my face and I can’t stop sneezing.
Welp, you certainly wouldn’t know it by the movie. How ironic is it that the pair were both embarrassingly allergic to the livestock they’d work with? Of course it made for a great story they can look back and laugh at now. Emily Blunt chimed in with these words:
We literally were just covered in hives anytime we were on the farm. So it is quite funny we were playing these lonely farmers who are supposed to be very good at being farmers and we are truly allergic to all farm animals, so we shared that at least.
Wild Mountain Thyme revolves around Jamie Dornan’s Anthony Reilly and his family when his dad, played by Christopher Walken, comes to a crossroads about whether he should leave his farm to him or their American relative, played by Jon Hamm. Amidst the family drama, Emily Blunt’s Rosemary gets in the middle of it all when Hamm’s character grows smitten with her as she looks intently in the other direction on Anthony to make a move instead. Check out the trailer here:
The Irish-flavored romance is based on a play called Outside Mullingar, which ran on Broadway back in 2014. John Patrick Shanley wrote both the play and wrote and directed the movie, which is based on his Irish family’s own farm. Shanley famously wrote Doubt, which became his own movie starring Meryl Streep and Viola Davis. He also notably wrote Moonstruck with Cher and Nicolas Cage and brought together Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks for their first pairing Joe Versus the Volcano in the ‘90s.
Two years removed from the Fifty Shades franchise, Dornan hasn’t shied away from romance, also starring with Shailene Woodley in Endings, Beginnings earlier this year as well. Next up he’ll star in a Kristen Wiig comedy Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. As far as Emily Blunt, the actress is set to star in A Quiet Place Part II and Jungle Cruise next year. Check out everything else coming soon with CinemaBlend’s 2021 movie release schedule and check out Wild Mountain Thyme, now in select theaters and on demand now.
