--- title: Mary Poppins Pulled Off That Bathtub Stunt With a Trick description: Emily Blunt's 'Mary Poppins Returns' involved some old-school tricks to make that bathtub scene come alive. canonical: https://time.com/5502035/mary-poppins-bathtub/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-01-14T15:55:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:56.517Z og:title: Mary Poppins Pulled Off That Bathtub Stunt With a Trick og:description: Old-school movie magic — not CGI — was at work on Emily Blunt's bathtub stunt og:url: https://time.com/5502035/mary-poppins-bathtub/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt342ac7a8215108e6/698941f1db29872a352617f5/marry-poppins-returns-review.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: Mary Poppins Returns og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mary Poppins Pulled Off That Bathtub Stunt With a Trick twitter:description: Old-school movie magic — not CGI — was at work on Emily Blunt's bathtub stunt twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt342ac7a8215108e6/698941f1db29872a352617f5/marry-poppins-returns-review.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Mary Poppins Pulled Off That Enthralling Bubble Bath Stunt With a Clever Trick > Sponsored content. 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Jay Maidment—Disney  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 14, 2019 3:55 PM UTC When it comes to the movie magic of [_Mary Poppins Returns_](http://time.com/5484129/review-mary-poppins-returns-blunt/), it turns out there are some clever low-fi tricks that helped bring to life the unusual talents of the beloved nanny, played in the new sequel by [Emily Blunt](http://time.com/5495647/john-krasinski-golden-globes/) and co-starring [Lin-Manuel Miranda](http://time.com/5472322/lin-manuel-miranda-mary-poppins-returns/) and Ben Whishaw. One such trick, making the rounds in a viral tweet, shows Blunt falling backward into a bathtub full of bubbles — and promptly sliding all the way down a hidden trapdoor in the tub, emerging onto a crash pad in a setup below. (In [the movie](http://time.com/5490563/aquaman-mary-poppins-returns-weekend-box-office-winners/), the bathtub ends up as a portal to an underwater fantasy land. That animated part, of course, did involve some computer-generated tricks to come to life.) But Blunt’s stunt work for the initial drop was the real deal. “They actually carved a whole into the bottom of the bath, and had a slide that went under the stage,” [Blunt explained](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yq4V4qB5s) in a question and answer panel on the movie’s publicity tour. “But it was a drop! Like, I’m going to tell you, it was fast and steep. And then they filled up the bath with bubbles.” Blunt also had to go through it multiple times before getting the shot right. Who needs rollercoasters when you have film sets? Hopefully she got a spoonful of sugar to help with the process. > [](https://twitter.com/CafeFantasia/status/1084076271041155073) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5502035/mary-poppins-bathtub/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5502035/mary-poppins-bathtub/"},"headline":"How Mary Poppins Pulled Off That Enthralling Bubble Bath Stunt With a Clever Trick","datePublished":"2019-01-14T15:55:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:56.517Z","description":"Emily Blunt's 'Mary Poppins Returns' involved some old-school tricks to make that bathtub scene come alive.","url":"https://time.com/5502035/mary-poppins-bathtub/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt342ac7a8215108e6/698941f1db29872a352617f5/marry-poppins-returns-review.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt342ac7a8215108e6/698941f1db29872a352617f5/marry-poppins-returns-review.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Mary Poppins Returns","caption":"Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins, Joel Dawson as Georgie, Pixie Davies as Annabel and Nathanael Saleh as John in 'Mary Poppins Returns\".","creditText":"Jay Maidment—Disney","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5502035/mary-poppins-bathtub/","name":"How Mary Poppins Pulled Off That Enthralling Bubble Bath Stunt With a Clever Trick"}}]}] ```