Emma Thompson - she's just lovely isn't she?

[HowDairy]

'Sense and Sensibility' is on BBC2 and my sis in law and I have been half watching it, whilst catching up and also MN-ing 😄

Both big fans of Emma Thompson here.

@MabelMora if only people who never flew by airplane were the ones allowed speak about climate change then there would be even less chance of anything changing.

She's won two Oscars, three BAFTAs, two Golden Globes and an Emmy (not to mention numerous nominations). She's the only person in history to have won an Oscar for both acting and screenwriting. It would be surprising if she didn't come across as confident!

I like and admire her, even if I don't always agree with her politics. She is incredibly talented, and interesting and funny when interviewed.

Just watch her in Much Ado About Nothing - brilliant. Ditto Saving Mr Banks.

She's hardly an eminent scientist in the field or a world leader, is she?!

And her husband is 100x worse ! The pair of them are insufferable but great actors.

What did she say?

I also know someone who's worked with her, and their opinion of her accords with what others have said here: she's lovely.
I don't know anything about her political views.
If I'm honest I find her acting hard to watch. Like a teenage boy who flexes all his muscles so he looks strong when he's only lifting a chair. Efforting. I don't want to notice what a good job of it the actor on screen is doing.

She's a great actress but she's a rent a gob when it comes to trendy political stances. She isn't as smart as she thinks she is on social issues and I have little respect for her beyond her acting ability.

Great actress. But irritates me as yet another example of privileged public school nepotistic success. Too many of them grandstanding on social issues they have no clue about.

I remember she campaigned against having a Tesco Express in Hampstead as it would ruin the area. Never mind about less well off locals who might benefit from lower prices instead of having to shop at artisan bakeries.

She also called Britain miserable, grey and cake laden (words to that effect) but she’s good friends with Prince Charles.

Reminds me of those perfect, annoying girls at school who volunteer to show the local dignitaries round and organise a litter pick at the weekends. Exhausting.

I’m sorry but this doesn’t add up or make sense. She is ok with paying higher taxes, and as a high earner she would pay a huge whack more than me or you. And if she and other privileged people paid more tax we’d get better transport services (or health, education etc.). It sounds like a win win for most people.

Hmm so savaging private schools yet sending her kid to one, preaching about climate change yet flying 5000 miles to attend a protest and holidaying on gas guzzling yachts are just two example of her hypocrisy.

She can spend her money how she wants but don’t preach to others about the evils or something you’re doing yourself!

I think she's a fantastic actress, but a bit thick irl - totally oblivious to the optics of flying across an ocean to take part in a climate change protest. Anyone with an ounce of self awareness would have thought that one through!
And she's the epitome of middle class hypocrisy - telling us all how to live and what we should believe, safe in the knowledge that none of the consequences are likely to apply to her.

@HopingForTheBest25 i don’t understand what you mean by this:

safe in the knowledge that none of the consequences are likely to apply to her

what consequences wouldn’t apply to her?

I am not that user but sh has taken part in a campaign saying that transwomen never pose a threat to women, and therefore it's fine for eg male rapists to be put in women's prisons. Emma Thompson unlikely to ever go to prison so is happy to spout the so-called progressive views of the day without any concern for the consequences.

She is selling women down the river with this argument, and so I am still of the view that she isn't actually nice.

Thanks yes that's what I thought, the fact she dumps Edward and moves onto the brother with the inheritance says it all!

For those of you who want more S&S the bbc series is on iplayer at the moment. The actress's in that series are much better cast imo.

I love her in every role I've seen her play.

No idea about her irl, but love her as an actress.

@AmateurNoun i take your point about trans and prisons and agree with you.

However, I don’t think @HopingForTheBest25 meant that. I think she was talking about being a Labour Party or environmental causes supporter and I can’t see what bad consequences there would be to either of those things, or why ET would escape them.

Urgh, repulsive. Though this was 2019. I wonder, is she better educated on the subject now?

She’s a good actress. Wrong for the part in Cruella (as was Emma Stone), still a good film, saved completely by the flawless soundtrack. Awful acting in a strange film called The Children Act. Awful film. But brilliant in others.

I think she hadn’t planned to play Eleanor, she’d only been hired to write the screenplay, but someone (Lindsay Doran?) persuaded to her to. She knew she was far too old to play a 19 year old. She’s in fact less than a year older than Hugh Grant, though!

I protested there too. It was good to have someone there who made the news.

She's about to star in a film about a case that led to the Gender Recognition Act (which was the start of all this mess), so I think all signs point to "no".

https://variety.com/2025/film/global/emma-thompson-anna-friel-christopher-eccleston-hear-me-roar-1236270673/

EDIT I thought it was the Goodwin case but it's the Bellinger case (both cases led to the creation of the GRA)

There wasn't much discussion about the actual fracking issue in the publicity she generated. So she made the news for the wrong reason. Marie Antoinette playing shepherdesses.

It's counter productive when a Famous Person thinks it's ok to trample over farming land for a publicity stunt without permission from the farmer and then refuses to move out of his field when asked. That's when he got pissed off and carried on with his slurry spraying.

That was the news, not the fracking and how Quadrilla was affecting the local environment

IMO she was a bit too old for the Sense and Sensibility role.

ISTR her saying that she knew she was too old for Elinor, but if she hadn't taken the role, the film might not have been made . Might not have attracted the money, I suppose she means. I can overlook her age, as it's overall an excellent Austen adaptation, in the top three with the BBC P&P and the Amanda Root Persuasion.

I also liked her in the BBC series Fortunes of War with Kenneth B when they were not quite unknown, but still at a relatively early stage in their careers.

@ARainyNightInSoho I did largely mean her stance on the trans issue - she is not ever likely to be in a prison or a domestic abuse shelter. But also environmental activists want us all to reduce carbon footprint and be more responsible in our use of Earth's resources. I totally agree these things are necessary. But I find that hard to square with rich celebrities taking unnecessary flights, so they can lecture us plebs in person.