As always, Emily Blunt was dressed impeccably as she attended the 17th Annual American Institute for Stuttering Gala in an all-red ensemble that exuded understated elegance.
Lady-in-red Emily Blunt making a stunning entrance at the 17th Annual American Institute for Stuttering Gala in New York City on June 12, 2023 (Credit: Janet Mayer / Startraksphoto)
She wore a vibrant red midi dress with long sleeves and a long bow tie detail. Her shoulder-length hair was parted in the center and kept sleek and straight, allowing for her stunning face to be in focus.
Blunt finished off her look with a soft pink blush, an assortment of rings, a dark red pedicure, and Prada ankle-strap heels that matched the hue of her dress.
Emily Blunt wearing red ankle-strap heels from Prada to complement her outfit (Credit: Janet Mayer / Startraksphoto)
The 40-year-old actress, producer, and philanthropist hosted the benefit gala, honoring Dr. Philip O. Ozuah, a nationally recognized physician, researcher, teacher, and author.
He is also the President and CEO of Montefiore Einstein, the umbrella organization for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System’s 13 member hospitals, 300 mobile sites, and 7.5 million patient encounters annually.
AIS, or American Institute for Stuttering, is a non-profit organization established in 1998 and serves to offer community support and speech therapy for anyone of any age who stutters.
Emily Blunt has been a board member since 2009 and is an advocate for stuttering awareness. According to the AIS website, Emily’s “willingness to share her personal stuttering challenges has encouraged other public figures to come forward to do the same. Emily took the challenges of being a child who stuttered and turned them into a force for positive change and inspiration.”
The American Institute for Stuttering Gala is a cause that’s close to Emily Blunt’s heart as she suffered from a debilitating case of stuttering when she was younger (Credit: Janet Mayer / Startraksphoto)
Last year, Emily Blunt also hosted the American Institute for Stuttering’s Freeing Voices, Changing Lives Gala in New York City.
The A Quiet Place star told the crowd, “Stutterers are my heroes. That’s why I am here.”
“It’s not that you’ll never not be a stutterer. I’ll always be one,” John Krasinski’s wife spoke to Variety on the red carpet about the challenges of dealing with a speech impediment. “Occasionally it will sort of rear its head if I’m on set or having to pitch an idea. It’s pressurized situations that are quite hard for stutterers. A pressurized situation where you have to be persuasive and communicative are quite challenging still for me.”
Emily Blunt speaking to reporters on the red carpet during the 17th Annual American Institute for Stuttering Gala (Credit: Janet Mayer / Startraksphoto)
In an interview with W magazine in 2007, Blunt said she was “a smart kid and had a lot to say, but [she] just couldn’t say it.”
The Jungle Cruise actress added, “It would just haunt me. I never thought I’d be able to sit and talk to someone like I’m talking to you right now.”
Blunt also told You magazine in 2021 about her initial resistance to pursuing acting: “I really didn’t want to be an actress. I had a deliberate resistance to it because I couldn’t imagine doing a job where you had to speak all the time.”
Emily Blunt looking every bit the lady in red at the 17th Annual American Institute for Stuttering Gala in New York City (Credit: Janet Mayer / Startraksphoto)
It wasn’t until a high school teacher suggested that she try acting to overcome her speech impediment that she gained a positive outlook.
“I found that one of the ways I could speak normally back then was if I did a silly voice or an accent. It actually gave me a fluency I wasn’t otherwise capable of. It was the making of me, in many ways.”