Emma Thompson Says Donald Trump Asked Her Out on a Date: ‘I Could Have Changed the Course of American History!'

Yahoo

2 days ago

Donald Trump asked Emma Thompson on a date.
'A phone rang in my trailer, and it was Donald Trump. I thought it was a joke. 'Hi, it's Donald Trump here.' I said: 'How can I help you'? I thought he needed directions. He said: 'I would love for you to stay in one of my beautiful places, and maybe we could have dinner.'
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She added: 'I realized that on that very day my divorce has finally come through. I bet he has people looking all over for suitable people he could take out, for all these nice divorcees – I mean, he found the number of my trailer! That's stalking! So yes, I could have gone on a date with Donald Trump. I could have changed the course of American history!'
Thompson, who started out as a comedian, was never afraid of political humor.
'I did jokes about Margaret Thatcher – and herpes, you know? It's the simplest thing you can get from unprotected sex. I said that Thatcher and herpes were both very difficult to get rid of. It still stands to this day,' she said, recalling her early days.
'Later, I wrote a series of comedy sketches and one of them was about a Victorian woman coming to see her mother. Her husband appears to have a 'small creature' attached to her body. She's talking about his penis, of course, and it's about sexual ignorance, but it's funny. The producer of 'Sense and Sensibility' saw that and thought: 'This woman can adapt Jane Austen!' That's so weird.'
At first, she didn't want to be an actor at all, she admitted. 'It seemed like a precarious job. A hospital administrator came to our school once, and I thought it was a nice job. Mostly because she had nice shoes.'
But acclaimed roles in 'Howards End,' 'The Remains of the Day' followed. For the latter, she was inspired by her own grandmother and 'intergenerational trauma.'
'She went into service when she was 13. She was raped by her employer, became pregnant, kept the child and discovered, as it happened to a lot of other young servant girls, that it was this forced surrogate motherhood.' Her experience informed her performance of Miss Kenton. 'My grandmother was never really happy and fulfilled.'
Later, Hollywood took notice as well, with Thompson talking about 'Primary Colors' and the way it mirrored the actual political turmoil.
'If you remember the Monica Lewinsky scandal, poor Monica, that happened when we were making 'Primary Colors'. We sat down, thinking: 'What are we going to do?' We are making a film about something that's happening at the same time.'
She added: 'It seems like such a long time ago. Oh, if only we could have a nice sex scandal and none of THIS, please.'
While the 'Harry Potter' franchise wasn't exactly an artistic challenge – 'I don't mean to be rude, but I came in, did the bit with glasses and hair, and left' – 'Nanny McPhee,' which she also wrote, was more satisfying.
'I didn't write it for children – I wrote it for everybody. It's about grief and I lost my father when I was very young. I think she was the one I turned to for comfort. She's so important to me and connects me to all generations.'
Celebrated also for 'Love Actually,' Thompson never expected it to become a beloved classic.
'I remember Hugh Grant coming up to me, asking: 'Is that the most psychotic thing we have ever made?' Then people started approaching me on the public transport, weeping,' she admitted.
'I think I've touched a nerve because we, women, when we are experiencing heartbreak, sometimes we have to hide it. What moves you is not her crying, it's her covering it up, going downstairs and being cheerful. It's constant source of astonishment to me [the film became so iconic]. It's a little bit weird!'
Thompson, who picked up the Leopard Club Award at the fest, recently starred in Brian Kirk's 'Dead of Winter'.
'I nearly had an aneurism – I was so astonished and so happy,' she said, recalling an especially crowded screening of the film.
'Most of the women I know are incredibly heroic. And the fact that [this character] was old and grieving, I haven't seen it before.'
She's also never seen a character like the one she played in 'Good Luck to You, Leo Grande': a woman who decides to finally experience an orgasm late in life – with the help of a sex worker.
'I loved her fear, I loved that she knew she was missing something important. She did all the right things [in life] and by the time we meet her, she's just depressed and confused,' she noted.
'The conversations I've had around this movie were incredible, with younger women telling me they've never experienced it either or older gay men saying it helped them with their body image. But it was very important for her to experience this orgasm on her own.'
She also talked about the scene of her standing in front of the 'not well lit' mirror, naked.
'It was just…there. EVERYTHING. I went to lots of art galleries and looked at images of Adam and Eve. They all stood in a very relaxed position, with one knee bent, not thinking about that. I tried to channel it. It was about someone having this neutral acceptance. And God knows it's hard.'
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