Emily Blunt: Girl on the Train 'to stay British'

Emily Blunt starts filming The Girl on the Train in November

Emily Blunt says her character in the film adaptation of The Girl on the Train will remain British - even though the action has moved to New York.

Blunt will play the girl of the title - an alcoholic divorcee who fantasises about a couple she sees from her train.

The film, directed by The Help's Tate Taylor, is set for release in 2016.

Blunt told the BBC: "It's moved to New York but I'm going to play her as British, that was a decision Tate and I made recently."

The star, who was in London to promote her latest film, Sicario, said she wanted to make the role of Rachel her own.

"I try not to get weighed down with what people are going to think of me," she said. "I'm going to have my own take on it."

Paula Hawkins' psychological thriller made publishing history earlier this year when it sat at the top of the hardback fiction charts for 20 weeks in a row.

It tells the story of a woman's disappearance seen from the point of view of three women.

Hawkins has said the story was inspired by her own commute in London when she enjoyed looking into people's houses from the train.

"I started idly daydreaming about what I would do if I saw something shocking or surprising," she said in a BBC interview when the book was published in January.

Blunt, who was born in Britain, has made headlines over the past week after she made an "innocuous joke" about becoming an American citizen in August.

Promoting Sicario at the Toronto film festival, the actress told The Hollywood Reporter: "I became an American citizen recently, and that night, we watched the Republican debate and I thought, 'this was a terrible mistake. What have I done?'"

Her remarks drew the ire of some conservative commentators and Blunt apologised on NBC's Today programme on Thursday, saying: "It was so not the intention to hurt anybody or cause any offence, so I really apologise to those that I caused offence to."

Speaking on Monday, Blunt said: "It was an incredibly innocuous joke in a light handed way, so the heavy-handed reaction was a bit surprising to me."

Sicario sees the actress play an FBI agent who is enlisted by an elite force to tackle the drugs trade on the US-Mexico border.

Talking about her next role, Blunt joked that her research for The Girl on the Train involved "lots of rosé!"