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© (c) 2006 Columbia Films
Emma Thompson in STRANGER THAN FICTION
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Exclusive Interview: EMMA THOMPSON GETS STRANGER THAN FICTION
The accomplished actress talks about her new film and the perfect suicide.
By EMMANUEL ITIER, Contributing Writer
Published 10/9/2006
Emma Thompson moves audiences with her mesmerizing performance in the Grand Auditorium of Cannes for HOWARD’S END and REMAINS OF THE DAY to this totally wild ride of STRANGER THAN FICTION at the super tonic and refreshing Toronto Film Festival ( www.tiffg.ca ). What’s so stimulating and sexy about Emma, beyond her English appeal, is her sharp, wicked mind.
iF Magazine: The movie is about a man whose life is written in fact by your character, a fiction writer. And what about you, do you have the feeling that your life is written by someone or that you’re in charge of your destiny?
Emma Thompson: Well, it’s quite a complicated question and therefore not an easy answer. I think that in a way our destiny is written and dictated by the way we live our lives. I think our destiny lays in our habits, our daily habits. There are people you can tell about their destiny because it’s clear. Like my character, for example, the way she lives her life, always on the edge. It’s clear her destiny is to die, or kill herself. As far as the character played by Will Farrell it’s clear his destiny, because he is so tight and obsessive, will be an empty destiny, an empty Life, without any love, any family. And this is what sometimes kills you: your own habits, your own routine. I think that to free yourself in a way from your destiny that you need to trick death, you need to break the routine. Maybe then you change the path of your life, of your destiny. Maybe you reach another destination. I think in a way we can write the story of our life at all times. I do write the story of my life in my head everyday. And I think that our destiny is also linked to our ability to open our mind and heart to the others, to our fellow men and women.
iF: The movie is also about the awakening, not only the opening as you mentioned, but about the awakening of this man to face himself and his destiny. When did you awake in your life, what made you realize you were alive and you needed to change maybe your life?
Thompson: For sure for me it was when I got my kid. It was not a soft awakening but more like a bomb. My daughter who is now six years old is really my inspiration in my life. She is the motor, the propulsion, the motivation of my life. She really brings me up. Now I cannot act as before, I cannot remain selfish and introverted as before. But really this is a total awakening when you have kids.
iF: The movie is also a thesis of some sort about “death”. So what about you, would you like to know when you’re going to die? And if so, what would you do?
Thompson: I don’t want to know when I’m going to die. Especially because I have a kid now. I think that the answer would be different if I didn’t have a kid, but now I feel responsible to stay alive as long as I can. If I didn’t have a kid I would lead a totally different type of life, spending time with friends, eating too much chocolate … As far as what I would do if I knew I was going to die? Well, I really don’t want to know I’m going to die so I don’t want to really think about what I would do …
iF: How was it to work with such an Icon like Dustin Hoffman?
Thompson: Simply Enchanting! Really, we would have these endless conversations about life, its meaning and such intellectual subjects over expensive bottles of red wine. And then we would walk along onto the set and keep talking, even so, because he refused not to be in a disguise, people would stop us for any reason. Dustin is such a generous soul. He doesn’t know how to say no. Whether it’s someone how wants to invite him for diner or to have him father their child, he is always gentle and saying yes. It was quite annoying at times. I would tell him to wear a hat at least but he simply refused and so we kept being bombarded by people stopping us. I get very irritable, I was playing like a mother to him. I had to stop walking with him because it was driving me nuts. Also, he is the only man I know who likes shopping!
iF: You’re a writer, you write scripts, stage plays, therefore from time to time you meet, like your character in the film, your protagonist, how is it to see one of your “hero” come to life?
Thompson: Well, it’s a little bit like in the film, it brings me down to my knees almost. It’s q “surreal” feeling to meet your characters, the ones you wrote in ink and face them now in flesh and blood. But it’s also such a joy to really see them take a life of their own. Because of the interpretation of the various actors, my characters are going to be slightly different from what I had in mind when I wrote them. So it’s a nice surprise also to see what direction they are taking as “live” figures.
iF: Has there been terrible moment of doubts for you as a writer, do you get sometimes writer’s block?
Thompson: Yes, and it’s terrible, there has been moment when I curl up like a fetus and think I just can’t do that, I just can’t have it come out of me. It’s a little bit when you’re having child-birth, you tell yourself: “OK, the joke is over! How do you want me to push a baby that big out of me.” This is just impossible. It’s very bizarre. Sometimes I think my mind is empty and that there is nothing in there. But I also think that it is at these moments that you have your big breakthroughs. It’s very odd.
iF: You character is trying to imagine the perfect death for her character, but what about you, have you thought about the perfect death, the perfect suicide?
Thompson: Oh, yes I have! I live in Scotland as well as London. Where I reside there is a river with a tiny bit of a beach. So if I had to commit suicide, on a winter’s day, I would go there with a blanket and a bottle of Scotch. I would sit down there. Drink slowly the entire bottle in order not to throw up and I would go to sleep and I would die of hypothermia … this is my perfect suicide. Well … now … straight into therapy after this interview.
iF: So, the life of the character played by Will Ferrell is narrated by you and your voice. What about you, if you had to choose, what voice would you pick up to narrate your life?
Thompson: Well, if I can choose … somebody like Simone De Beauvoir, somebody European, probably French. I feel so closed from French women. I studied all these European writers when I was a student and I have always been fascinated by the softness and kindness of their voice.
iF: The movie is also for me about the lack of communication in society and how everyone lives more and more in his own isolated bubble. Don’t you think?
Thompson: You’re absolutely right. It’s true that this is a sad phenomenon and especially in the big cities. I think that is sad that people don’t realize that we all need each other, which we all make one and to survive we need to come together.
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