Emily Blunt showed off her vocal skills in Oscar-nominated “Into the Woods,” and on Thursday she’ll be belting out a Janis Joplin classic on Spike’s “Lip Sync Battle.”
In the sneak peek clip, Blunt gets ready to face off against her former “Devil Wears Prada” rival Anne Hathaway. She reveals her pre-game strategy for what she’s calling the “performance of her life” against Hathaway, who won an Oscar for her musical role in “Les Miserables.”
“I’ve been super ‘method’ about it,” she says. “I’ve been screaming at everybody every day because I don’t want a voice.”
“Anne has a very, very weird process,” the British actress reveals, citing her opponent’s tactics as “humming, cloaks and Beethoven’s fifth.”
Staring intently into the mirror, Blunt repeated “Benedict Cumberbatch” over and over to prep her voice. “This goddess I am about to portray out there is pretty wild — and she doesn’t take showers,” she added.
In a preview post on TheWrap earlier this week, “Interstellar” star Hathaway can be seen stripping down to flesh-colored underwear as she channels Miley Cyrus from her “Wrecking Ball” video.
“Lip Sync Battle,” which originated as a skit on Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show,” is executive produced by John Krasinski, Stephen Merchant, Casey Patterson, Jay Peterson and Rick Schwartz. Beth McCarthy-Miller of “Saturday Night Live” serves as director.
Last week’s premiere, featuring Dwayne Johnson taking down Fallon, scored record ratings for Spike and drew 2.2 million total viewers — the largest viewership for an unscripted series debut in the network’s history.
“Lip Sync Battle” airs on Spike Thursday at 10 p.m. ET.