Emily Blunt Reveals How Dick Van Dyke Left Colin Firth ‘Weeping’ on Set of Mary Poppins Returns

The actress spoke to PEOPLE at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘The Smashing Machine’ on Monday, Sept. 29

(L-R) Emily Blunt, Dick Van Dyke and Colin Firth.

Emily Blunt is sharing her favorite memory of her former costar Dick Van Dyke.

Speaking exclusively to PEOPLE at the Los Angeles premiere of her latest film The Smashing Machine on Monday, Sept.

29, the actress, 42, spoke about how Van Dyke, who turns 100 in December, once made Colin Firth break down in tears while working on the set of 2018’s Mary Poppins Returns.

“I will never forget Dick Van Dyke leaping onto the desk tap dancing,” Blunt tells PEOPLE.

“And Rob Marshall [director] had said that Lin-Manuel [Miranda] and I should help him up.”

“He had to go onto the chair and onto the desk, and we were there to help him up, and he literally pushed our hands away, and was up there, and it made everyone cry,” Blunt continues, adding that the moment even got Firth, 65, who played the role of William “Weatherall” Wilkins.

“Even Colin Firth, who refuses to show emotion, ever, wept watching him.

It was just incredible,” the Devil Wears Prada star tells PEOPLE.

While Blunt played the role of Mary Poppins in the sequel of the 1964 classic — which starred Julie Andrews as the beloved character — Van Dyke played Mr.

Dawes Jr., the son of banker Mr.

Dawes Sr., whom he played in the original movie.

Dick Van Dyke dancing in ‘Mary Poppins Returns’.
In the tap dancing scene, Van Dyke can be seen saying he “still has a few steps left in me,” before tossing his stick to Miranda, 45, and starting to dance his way to the desk and climbing on top.

The musical movie sequel follows nanny Mary Poppins as she returns to help the Banks family following the death of Michael Banks’ (Ben Whishaw) wife.

Meanwhile, Blunt’s latest role sees her star as Dawn Staples alongside Dwayne Johnson’s Mark Kerr in the biographical movie, The Smashing Machine.

The film tells the story of MMA fighter Kerr reaching the height of his career while facing adversities in his personal life, including in his marriage to Staples, whom he split from in 2015.

Colin Firth in ‘Mary Poppins Returns’.
Speaking to PEOPLE at the premiere on Monday, Blunt recalled how director Benny Safdie told her while they were working together on 2023’s Oppenheimer that he wanted to do a film with Johnson, 53.

“He just said, ‘You’re friends with him, right?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he goes, ‘We were going to do a movie together.’.

And I was like, ‘What?’.

And this was just music to my ears because I had sensed this restlessness in DJ to explore other avenues of what he was capable of doing, and he’s obviously got that magnetism in there,” she says.

Emily Blunt at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘The Smashing Machine’ on Sept. 29, 2025.

Speaking of her costar Johnson, Blunt adds, “He’s like a charisma bomb. It’s no easy thing to be a big Hollywood movie star.

I think people can negate it for being easy. That’s not easy, but I knew on a human level he was restless for something new.”.

“And I think if you’re going to explore the soul, you have to do it with someone as willing as Benny to do so.

So it seemed like a recipe for success really, the two of them together,” she says.

The Smashing Machine hits theaters Oct. 3.