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Chapter 1: What inspired Kristin Scott Thomas to pursue acting?
Welcome to This Cultural Life, the series in which some of the world's leading artistic figures choose the influences and experiences that have most inspired their own creative lives. I'm John Wilson, and my guest in this episode is the actor Kristin Scott Thomas.
after a breakthrough role in the film a handful of dust she became a global star with four weddings and a funeral in 1994 and two years later was oscar nominated for the english patient her screen roles in the years since have included gosford park the horse whisperer more recently rebecca and on television slow horses she's just made her debut as a director and screenwriter with my mother's wedding
Her extensive theatre credits include Chekhov's The Seagull, for which she won an Olivier Award, and she played the Queen in Peter Morgan's drama The Audience. Kristen Scott Thomas has also enjoyed a distinguished stage and film career in France, where she was awarded the Légion d'honneur in 2005. In 2014, she was made a dame for services to drama.
Christine Scott Thomas, welcome to This Cultural Life.
Chapter 2: How did personal tragedy shape Kristin's early life?
Thank you very much. You were born in Cornwall and you were educated in Cheltenham at the Ladies' College and grew up in a military family. But your childhood was shaped by a double tragedy. Two air crashes five years apart that killed both your father and then your stepfather. Tell me about your father, first of all. Who was he? Well, I wish I knew. That's part of the issue, part of the motor.
The mystery of what is half of me is something that I'll never really know. You know, I just never discover any more about it. It was very weird growing up, particularly when I was a sort of teenager or young adult. I'd go to weddings and these funny old men would come towards me and they were sort of balding and slightly portly and say, I was a great friend of your father's.
And I said, well, you can't possibly. My father was devastatingly good looking and only 30.
Chapter 3: What breakthrough role made Kristin Scott Thomas a global star?
And you were five when he was killed? I was, yeah, five. What were the circumstances? He was in the Royal Navy. He was in the Royal Navy and he was flying. And at the time, flying was a very, very dangerous job. I think it still is. But I think then they had one particular aircraft called a Sea Vixen, which was really a huge thing. And they used to do these training exercises.
And the accident rate was really, really high. And he succumbed to one of those. And yeah, he just he died. And my mother was pregnant. And I had two little sisters and another person on the way. And do you have no memories of being told? Oh, I have lots of memories of being told. Yeah, they lurk. They lurk forever. I mean, that sort of event will inform who you become.
I think nowadays, thanks to the sort of awakening of the idea of mental health not being something hideously embarrassing and sort of... I think trauma has become slightly over-claimed, but I think there's enormous progress being made. This was a long time ago. It was 60 years ago. So it was the time when people thought that children could take knocks and just get over them.
Chapter 4: What challenges did Kristin face in her career after her Oscar nomination?
And we do. I mean, here I am, you know. But it was unnecessarily difficult, I think. But it's trauma and grief in response not only to the loss of your father, but also the fact that your mother remarried, had more children, and then her new husband, your stepfather, was killed in, I mean, from what I understand, almost identical circumstances, also flying with the Royal Navy, the police air arm.
Absolutely. I think that was possibly more damaging to me because I was only 11 years old. And I just got my head around this new person who was in our lives. you know, then this thing happens again. I remember thinking, and it still, you know, sort of hurts to think about it, but thinking, how can this be happening again? I cannot believe that this is happening again.
The repetition of it was so devastating and unfair that I felt that really did actually damage me, I think, possibly more than the first time. The word triggering wouldn't have been used at the time, but I'm wondering whether you were, in the way that we understand it now, triggered about the loss of your father when you're... But at the time, you know, there was no pastoral care.
There was no there was nothing. You know, my housemistress told me and that was that. And then I next saw my mother sort of six weeks later because she was a wreck and she had five small children. At least I was safe in a school somewhere and being looked after. You know, I really feel for her now.
I mean, at the time, that's all we were told to feel for was think about your mother, how awful it is for her. Nobody ever said, are you OK? Nobody ever did that. But do you think there was an expectation that you wouldn't talk about it? There was an expectation that we don't talk about these things because it's uncomfortable for everyone. That sort of thing has gone now.
People kind of overshare. Here I am oversharing. You know, it's currency now, whereas before it was a private event. And it's particularly when you come from a naval family where, you know, you know what the risks are. But I think nowadays there's far more attention paid to the families.
In fact, I know there is because I help a charity called the Naval Children's Charity, which looks after people who are disabled. you know, in trouble because they've lost a parent. Because, of course, nowadays it's women and men, mothers and fathers who are at risk. But I think in those days there was a very much a kind of culture of just don't mention it and keep going.
And I think that was probably left over from the Second World War. And, you know, you just keep going. But it's also the fact that it was a military family, so there's an expectation of a sort of stoicism, isn't there? Yes, absolutely. I mean, my mother was completely not from that world at all. How did she cope with that? Well, I don't really know. Did you never talk about it with her later?
Yeah, we did. But it was always a bit fraught. And because it was the sort of conversation you have in the car, you know, and I would always be riding shotgun because I was a very good navigator. And we'd have all the other children in the back. And so it was the sort of thing you talk about on long journeys. But it always got a bit, you don't want to.
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Chapter 5: How has Kristin's experience with grief influenced her acting choices?
I wanted to be part of that story. It really deeply, deeply affected me. I think that was probably the beginning of the curing.
Yeah.
Because I think it was probably the stuff to do with abandonment, just sort of knocking that one on the head. When he leaves Catherine in the cave, for God's sake. After a plane crash. Yes. Yes. After a plane crash. Yeah. Did that resonate with you? I think it only must have done, you know. Yeah, yeah. But everything resonates, you know. Everything is a reference to something else, isn't it?
So you read the book, you loved it, you wanted to be in the film. Then you heard Anthony Minghella is directing it. How did you get the role of Catherine? Well, then somebody said, I think it was my agent sent me a script, said, you know, do you want to do something in this? And I said, yes, I want to play Hannah. Let me play the nurse. I'd be really good at the nurse. Played by Juliette Binoche.
Played by Juliette Binoche. Brilliantly, brilliantly. She's been in the studio on this programme talking about that. I know, I know. She's so clever. She's absolute. She's such an amazing actress. She really is. And she's gone from sort of strength to strength. And it's fabulous to watch. Anyway, enough about Juliette. It's interesting. It's very revealing that.
You wanted the role of Hannah first. Yes. I never even imagined. I mean, why would they choose me to play this sort of amazing creature? What, Catherine? The love object. Why would they choose me? I just could not. Why would they not? Well, that now, because it was made into that, but I couldn't imagine that then. So was there an audition? What was the process with Anthony? Well, there was.
Then I went, oh, they want me to play Catherine Clifton. Oh, OK. So I trot along and have a lunch with Anthony, who was absolutely charming, and I sat down and basically told him why I shouldn't play Catherine Clifton.
LAUGHTER
And then I had to write a letter because I came back and kicked myself. Why were you so negative? Why were you so self-deprecating? And I wrote him a letter. And in the letter, I think this is what clinched it. I wrote, I don't know why I did that, but this is why I should play Catherine Clifton. I am K in your book. I put that at the end of the letter.
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Chapter 6: What motivated Kristin to make her directorial debut with My Mother's Wedding?
I think the Robert Redford film, The Horse Whisperer, was after that, wasn't it? So the door is opened to Hollywood offers. But then famously you stepped back from the film industry. I mean, it was all there on offer, on a plate, but then you sort of made it clear that it wasn't for you. Why was that? Well, because...
I had two small children and a husband who was having a wonderful career in France as a very, very good doctor. Don't get me wrong, this is not a sacrifice. I didn't give everything up for them. It's just it didn't work with it. And I wanted to bring up my children in Europe. And I just felt very nervous about pursuing a career in America and everything I would have to do to be like them.
And I noticed the moment I, because I was doing a lot of little French things at the time. And I noticed as soon as I got my nomination, those all dried up. No one dared ask you anymore. Because they thought you were suddenly too big. Yeah. So for a number of reasons, geographical concerns about how ambitious was I? Was I really going to be able to fight as much as you do have to?
Was I really going to be able to put up with the doubt, the criticism, everything? I preferred to kind of carrying on doing what I was doing. And after stepping back from film, or Hollywood in particular, and focusing more on theatre, you now have television to thank for a whole new generation of viewers knowing you. I mean, there's a fantastic cameo role that you had in Fleabag.
Yeah.
But also playing the spy boss in Slow Horses. Yes. Do you feel now you can cherry-pick the roles? I mean, I've always done that. Have you? Yeah. Believe me, I said no to quite a lot of them. And some I regretted immediately, you know, thinking, oh, God, why didn't I do that? That was so stupid. I shot myself in the foot. But, you know, as I say, it's a balance between real life and pretend life.
So I've always been in a very lucky, but also I've worked very hard to get there, of being able to think, no, I don't want to go off and do that. And have I done this role before? Yes, don't do it. And that's happening a lot at the moment. What was the appeal of playing the spy boss, Diana Tavener, in Slow Horses? I mean, it looks like a lot of fun, doesn't it? Yeah.
I hadn't worked on film for four years, and Joe Wright persuaded me to go in and do, in The Darkest Hour, a play opposite Gary Oldman, and that's an extraordinary experience. This is the Churchill... The Churchill, yeah, yeah. So working with Gary was just so exciting.
And I loved it so much that when this arrived, by then I was living in England and everyone around me was talking about McHeron, McHeron, McHeron, McHeron. And so I, you know, got became intrigued. And then Diana Tavenner. Oh, yeah, I do that standing on my head. Slightly harder than that. Service standing order. Whatever the hell it is.
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