Emma Thompson reveals she turned down a dinner date with Donald Trump: ‘I'll get back to you'
The British actress, 66, has revealed that she once turned down the current US president's advances back in the 1998 when he directly phoned her to asked her out on a date.
'He said, 'Hello, this is Donald Trump,'' she told the audience at Locarno film festival in Switzerland over the weekend, as reported by the Guardian.
'I thought it was a joke and asked: 'How can I help you?' Maybe he needed directions from someone.'
'Then he said, 'I'd love you to come and stay at one of my beautiful places. Maybe we could have dinner.' I said, 'Well, that's very sweet. Thank you so much. I'll get back to you.''
Thompson was filming the political satire Primary Colours at the time – a film reportedly based on Bill Clinton's presidential rise – and Trump had just split from his second wife, Marla Maples.
Likewise, the Love Actually star was fresh from her divorce from British actor Kenneth Branagh, whose divorce was coincidentally finalised the day Trump, now 79, asked her out.
'I realised my divorce decree had come through that day,' Thompson told the crowd at the event. 'And I bet he's got people looking for suitable people he could take out on his arm. You know, a nice divorcee, that's what he was looking for.'
'And he found the number in my trailer. I mean, that's stalking,' she jokingly added.
At the time, Thompson was already in a relationship with her Sense and Sensibility co-star Greg Wise, who she went on to marry in 2003.
Trump, of course, went on meet Melania Trump later in 1998 and they were married in 2005. He became the 45th US president in 2017 before again being voted into the top job last year.
Thompson – a lifelong Labour supporter and activist in the UK, who campaigned for refugees and women's rights – joked that she could have impacted the life and political choices of Trump if she didn't turn him down.
'I could have gone on a date with Donald Trump, and then I would have a story to tell,' she said, entertaining a 'sliding doors' moment.
'I could have changed the course of American history.'
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