Dear fans of the book The Girl on the Train: I have good news for you. Director Tate Taylor, the book's author Paula Hawkins, and screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson have managed to achieve the elusive book-to-big screen adaptation that's actually as good as the novel. And I'm willing to bet readers and non-readers alike will find the story of Rachel, a blackout drunk who accidentally throws herself in the middle of a shocking mystery, both edge-of-your-seat thrilling and eerily alluring. It's an impressive feat considering the movie stays pretty darn close to the original plot. (Though I had one major gripe: It's been moved from the U.K. to New York. Sure, this story could've happened anywhere, but I felt like the book's setting on a suburbs-to-London commute was a big part of its identity.)There's one main reason I was sold on the cinematic version of The Girl on the Train, though: Emily Blunt. I'll admit I was a tad doubtful that the gorgeous actress could accurately portray the brooding, disheveled Rachel I'd pictured while reading ( as was Paula Hawkins , apparently), but her performance was so convincing that I felt it in my bones. In one scene in particular, Blunt's Rachel has a meltdown in front of a mirror that's so powerful, it gave me goosebumps. In early September, I sat down with the Golden Globe-winning actress to talk about what it took to get into the mind of Rachel, what the film means for women, and more."This was a part I’ve never played before. Rachel is very toxic, physically and emotionally; an incredibly tortured, self-loathing sort of person, and I thought it was thrilling to have a protagonist that's a blackout drunk. So it was a combination of the personal challenge for me and also the idea of this unreliable narrator, which I thought was so cool.”"I hadn’t read the book when I got approached about it. I'd just seen everyone reading the book on vacation or on the subway — the train! So when I was approached, I read it and very quickly saw why it was this phenomenon."“It was different bits of research, really. I read some books, I spoke to some friends of mine that suffered with addiction who were very generous and open with me about it, and I watched the show Intervention. That one was important because I don’t have an addictive personality whatsoever, and so to see it in action was helpful for me because I am having to physically portray an alcoholic, as well; it wasn't just about understanding the mindset. I had to figure out how to portray someone who is wasted drunk, because I think any time any of us have been wasted, you can’t remember what you looked like during it! Thankfully I don’t think anyone's ever filmed me when I was blackout drunk, so I had to really study that. I also couldn't actually be drunk while filming because I was pregnant. No method prep or hardcore stunts for me!"“Well I have to credit Kyra Panchenko, the makeup artist. She really created the character physically for me. She pulled up every celebrity's drunk driving mugshot that we could find, so we had hilarious pictures of people — who will remain nameless! — all over the makeup bus, and we were trying to make me look like them. We really focused on what happens to the face when you're drunk; what it does to your skin, to your eyes. She created rosacea all over me, that sort of sallow, gray hue to the skin, and brought out every blemish I had. And for the really drunk stuff, I wore full contact lenses so I had a full bloodshot eye. It covered my whole eye, which was a pain in the ass to wear, but it gives that sort of glassy-eyed feel. I had different stages of drunkenness throughout the movie, so there were different lenses for each. I had pink eyes, red eyes, that yellow, hungover eye. Crazy!”