Prequels are so hot right now. Star Trek. Wolverine. The Young Victoria? In the new film from Quebecois director Jean-Marc Vallée, Queen Victoria's 64 year reign is rewound to the monarch's coronation at the age of 18.

The Devil Wears Prada star Emily Blunt, 26, plays Victoria as a temperamental teenager struggling to find her footing. Sipping on Starbucks at the Intercontinental Hotel, discretely shielding her new engagement ring given to her by The Office's John Krasinski, the English actress talks about her own reckless period, the role of the royals, and celebrity skewering--then and now.

Sympatico: Are you bringing your fiancé to the red carpet tonight?
Emily Blunt: Noooo.

S: Are you trying to keep your relationship off the red carpet?
EB: We just like to be private.

S: That's worked well for Jay-Z and Beyonce.
EB: I'm sure they still go to the movies. They just go out in Pasadena instead of Hollywood.

S: In The Young Victoria, all of this came to Victoria before she felt she was deserving of it, or ready for it.
EB: She wasn't meant to be queen. She was about fifth in line for the throne, and it just so happened that people died, and she ended up being next in line. When she found out at 11 she cried all night! She was devastated, but woke up the next morning with a quiet resilience. Which speaks volumes to who she was even at a young age.

S: Where do you think the place of the royal family is today?
EB: I think they're emblematic of our country, and people don't ever want to lose that. But I don't feel they have as much sway as the government, and they aren't followed as closely as the government. They're revered as national treasures, and as our ancestry and our history, and I think there's a great deal of respect there, but I don't think they are as criticized as they were in that time, because I think that all lands on the government now. I think that's where most people's criticism goes now.

S: One thing that older actors say is they are happy they aren't coming up now because it's more difficult. I watch this movie and see that even in that age it was difficult to handle fame. How do you feel?
EB: In her day, she felt ridiculed and there were cartoons drawn of her in newspapers. In her way she was similarly observed and criticized. I think it's much harder because we have the internet. It invades everything. I think it is a different world in this business. You're very much more public domain.

S: You play Victoria with a feisty side. How did that come through in the research?
EB: She would talk ferociously about how someone had irritated her, and how she wouldn't put up with that. She was stubborn, and reckless, and a teenager! She became queen at the age of 18. You forget what you were like at 18. Can you imagine shouldering the responsibility of a country at the age of 18? And people expect you to assert yourself, and to be faultless in every doing, and I think she messed up.

S: What were you like when you were a teenager?
EB: I was not fun! Certainly not for my parents. I think I was vile at 14 and then slowly grew into being more pleasant as I hit the later teens.

S: In your 20s you can feel like an impostor. How are you finding your 20s?
EB: The early 20s, I think I had a more cavalier attitude, and that's where I made mistakes. I made some reckless choices. I didn't have ownership over who I was. I was reacting to things, sometimes in the right ways, sometimes not.

S: What's an example of that?
EB: Professionally. In how I approached people. Whether it was friends, relationships, whoever it was, certain things happened I would have reacted differently to now. I feel a lot stronger now. I feel like I'm not two steps behind myself now like I felt I was before.

"The Young Victoria" opens in December.