Emma Thompson: Live webchat, Wednesday 2 October, 8.15-9.15pm

[RachelMumsnet]

To celebrate the publication of Christmas Tale of Peter Rabbit, Oscar-winning actress, screenwriter and children's author Emma Thompson is joining us for a webchat on Wednesday 2 October at 8.15pm. The book is Emma's second tale about the iconic blue-coated rabbit; The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit marked the first Beatrix Potter tale to be published since 1930.

Join Emma for a webchat on Wednesday eve at 8.15 pm or post a question to her in advance on this thread.

[EmmaThompson]

@SpottyDottie

Hello Emma! DD and I love Nanny McPhee, especially the line 'I did knock' which we repeat to each other frequently.

How do you make time for friendships and do you find it hard to make friends outside of 'showbiz'?

I think friendship is one of the most important things in life. My three oldest friends I've known since I was seven, eleven and nineteen and they're my rocks, my load-stones. I just make sure that I see them and that we communicate. One lives in Scotland, one lives in London and one lives in Durham. The Durham one we just meet once or twice a year and we go away for the weekend. I find that as I get older a dinner isn't enough. With an old friend you just want to spend more time. As your children get older you can just go off. It's one of my favourite things – pursuing my friendships. I like making new friends of course, and sometimes I do with my job but it's not the same as having known someone for 30 or 40 years. Nothing compares to those friendships.

[EmmaThompson]

@nobutreally

I know we're not meant to have another question, but this is a BP one.

Other than Peter, who else would you like to take on?
I'd love to know more about some of the characters we only meet in Apply Dappleys' Nursery Ryhmes - Where does the black rabbit get those carrots? Where is the guinea pig going in his blue tie?

Where is that guinea pig going?! Some sort of masonic lodge meeting or something!? That's a good idea to go back to Apply Dappley. I've got a black rabbit in the first Peter Rabbit book in Scotland. There's a huge black Scottish rabbit called Finley, so I'm not sure if I would reintroduce another character so similar. But I will look –that's a lovely idea thank you!

[IHeartKingThistle]

MN can make anything happen!

Nanny McPhee in Space...

[LaVitaBellissima]

Yes to Nanny McPhee in Space

[shrinkingnora]

I'm now worrie do have inadvertently offended you with my question. So I will rephrase it - did you enjoy making much ado?

[midwifeandmum]

Ill try get £20 for every baby i deliver this year and donate it to MN's foundation 'nanny mcfee in space' it will certainly keep dd1 happy. Shes a massive fan. She says her gran has nanny mcfee teeth.....oops
Zoe xx

[shrinkingnora]

Sorry, that sounded really aggressive! I just loved the film so much and it's my go to feel good film.

[morethanpotatoprints]

Another Yes to Nanny McPhee in space

[EmmaThompson]

@MikeLitoris

Hi Emma, my question is about the role you played in Love Actually. What do you think happened at the end? That look and awkward kiss in the airport. Do you think your character forgave Alan?

Love Actually was a very funny, short gig. It was very emotional, and I've had more responses to it than anythign else. I have people coming up to me on the tube and say "How did you klnow?!" Everyone, of course, has had a heartbreak. And I agree with you, Alan's behaviour is very bad because we assume his relationship with this girl is very serious, and that's hard for me to imagine –being able to have a relationship like that whilst living at home. It seems odd to me. However, I do think that monogamy is an odd state, and actually I think it's an odd state for women. I think that we're locked into certain ideas and certain romantic ideals that have shaped our thinking about relationships for some time. And I do sometimes wonder about whether there are alternatives, and about whether our fury and rage and disbelief and horror about infidelity is quite realistic. I, of course, have got the t-shirt, so I understand the feelings very well but I think as I get older and think about long-term relationships, I do see that they can change. I've watched that in lots of instances, with lots of friends and we all live so long now! I sometimes wonder whether, whilst there is of course a completely wonderful monogamous model, that we'd all love because it feels safe and secure and there's probably less work, than say another model that is three relationships over the three stages of your life. Your young life, your middle life, and your late life. All I'm suggesting is that there are other models and I'm also suggesting that we'd been a little bit caught by the happy-ever-after ideal. All the fairy stories end when people get married and go off into the sunset, there are very few stories that deal with the nuts and bolts and actualities of serious relationships. I think that relationships are very hard work, that we can take our eyes off the ball very easily, I think that children can be a huge strain on relationships – it depends on what kind of relationship you have. I feel quite strongly that Alan is demonised and I kind of understand.

[EmmaThompson]

@Tinlegs

Will I ever be able to see you on stage? And if you do a play, please tour to Scotland.

i don't do plays at the moment because my daughter is 13 and she gets home from school at 5.30, at which point I would leave for the theatre, on Saturday I would leave at half 12 and on Sunday I'd be so tired that all I'd be able to do is sip a small gin and lye in a heap. Whereas a film is a short, sharp patch of work that's then over, and writing I can do at home. But when my daughter is ready to chuck me out the house, I'll come and tour Scotland!

[EmmaThompson]

@midwifeandmum

Ill try get £20 for every baby i deliver this year and donate it to MN's foundation 'nanny mcfee in space' it will certainly keep dd1 happy. Shes a massive fan. She says her gran has nanny mcfee teeth.....oops
Zoe xx

That'll pay for half a wall! That's very kind!

[EmmaThompson]

@shrinkingnora

I know it's a long time ago but was filming 'Much Ado About Nothing' as fun as it looked? I loved the pithy put downs.

Yes, it was just wonderful. We were all very happy, and it is of course the basis for romantic comedy. Shakespeare invented it. Two people that appear to be at each others throats then in fact end up together. I think he invented it, and it's a form that never left us and it's just heaven. Imagine a bunch of little white pale English actors being taken out to Italy and being told to get a sun tan! We were in bliss! All that pasta... We were so hot I had to sleep with a wet towel around my head all night.

[northernlurker]

'I think that relationships are very hard work, that we can take our eyes off the ball very easily'

Yes absolutely! (the crush is now so big it's applying to be recognised as a nation state...)

[FCEK]

Hope I'm not too late.

You've played so many people, real and fictional.

Is there any character or RL person you would absolutely LOVE to portray?

[midwifeandmum]

Cant wait for Peter Rabbit book Emma, dd1 has it on pre order on xmas list lol

Zoe xx

[NeverKnowinglyUnderstood]

Emma, sorry to be a bit off piste but did you swoon as I did over Denzel Washington in leather trousers in Italy?

[IHeartKingThistle]

I want to be as wise as Emma Thompson.

[midwifeandmum]

Neverknowingly, me too (swoon) lol xx

[down2earthwithabump]

How many people are on Mumsnet? ...if we all cough up an equal amount, how much is that each to fund Nanny McPhee in space?

[shrinkingnora]

Thank you for answering!

PS My mother in law is called Maggie and whenever we go out for a meal and they're all dithering about where to sit I say 'How about we go boy, girl, boy, Maggie' a la Peter's Friends. They never know what I'm talking about..

[midwifeandmum]

Down2 - im paying for half a wall lol x

[NeverKnowinglyUnderstood]

Ah Peters friends.. totally forgot about how much I loved that film

[spixblue]

The precariousness of personal relationships is very true. A relationship might end when one half of the couple gets put in a pie by Mrs McGregor.

[EmmaThompson]

@Whitershadeofpale

I read that it was your discovery of feminism that led you to become a performer.

Is this accurate? If so do you think that young feminists would be inspired in the same way today and do you think that women in the public eye have a duty to be a good role model?

It's true that when I was a young woman and starting my professional life in comedy, I started to think about politics and I started to get very angry about what had happened to women and what was still happening to women and I started to write about it. I started to write sketches about it and I did a sketch show in Edinburgh at the festival then I did a solo show on TV which I didn't handle very well in the sense that I had started to act and I had been recognised as an actor in Tutti Fruiti and I was asked after that by my comedy producer if I wanted to continue with acting or go back to my comedy. And I said no I want to do the comedy, so I sat down and wrote this comedy series for a year and it was all political. I look back at it now and all of it was about things that I felt strongly about. There was one set with me and Imelda Staunton where this medevil woman comes into my kitchen and says 'I've gone and split the atom, he's going to be so cross!'. It was a piece about not being about to outshine your husband. There was a piece about dieting called Auto-Canibalism about eating yourself until you're the size you want to be! There was a lot of politics in that early comedy and I got it in the neck from critics who slammed it. There was no laugh track and it was quite odd, I suppose, for people. I was absolutely excoriated by the critics who were mostly men who said it was man-hating. Not funny, women can't write comedy, etc. It was a very interesting experience because it was a huge, massive very public failure. It was very painful. And I stopped writing comedy. I started writing screenplays. I started writing Sense and Sensibility because my producer saw it and wanted me to do it, but I stopped writing comedy. It was so painful. IT's interesting when I talk to young people now and they look at me and see someone built from success. But I'm not, I'm largely built on failure. Failure is one of the most important aspects of our artistic lives. If you can't survive failure you can't be an artist. This was not only failure, it was an attack. Profound misogyny, and it's still abroad!