"Emma Thompson"

SmartLess

Emma Thompson joins SmartLess for a witty, candid chat spanning her career, British culture, climate change, and quirky fan interactions. The conversation blends humor, heartfelt reflections, and playful banter with the hosts.

Key takeaways

• Emma Thompson shares her unique perspective on fame and privacy.
• She reflects on British identity and the country's evolving relationship with climate change.
• Her insights on food, tradition, and resilience highlight cultural contrasts.

Transcript preview

So hello everyone, darling listeners. It is Emma Thompson here calling you from Blighty, the shores of Great Britain. My microphone is propped up on, well actually one of the boxes has got my quite posh cards in that I recently invested in which had my name and tiny little really sort of delicate letters that I've got I just thought it was classy. Anyway, I may be wrong, of course, I often am. So the books are truth and repair by a woman called Judith El Herman, author of trauma and recovery. You may be getting a sense here. Then there's getting over your parents, which is a very important book for anyone who is human. And then there's on being nice, which of course is a very important thing, but don't take it too far. That's what I always say. Oh, there was one other thing. Welcome to Smartless. Have you been working on your faces in the mirror all morning? Yes. Yeah. Let's see surprise. Surprise, let's see surprise. Well, God, that's so good. Now one with the mouth closed, one with the mouth closed, still rolling, still rolling, still rolling, still rolling. And one with the mouth closed? Okay, good, good. Don't look right at the camera, don't look right at the camera, still rolling. Can you close your mouth in the scene? No. I swear to God. No. Was it a dialect scene? They just want you to stop talking? Yeah, no, it's just like my character is like, I can't believe what you're saying. Like I was just like, are you serious? Like kind of I'm serious. I was like, and she's like, can you do it with your mouth closed? You could you do it with your mouth closed? You're like, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're going to talk? You're going to go on background? And just try thinking your lines on this tick. Here we go everybody. Wait, you know, I was doing this scene once years ago and Eli was there. We were in France and I had to this long shot. I'm walking down the thing and I get to the end. And Eli goes, bro, your legs really wide apart, okay? Your gate's really wide. I go, oh, okay. And then I had to do it like five more times the whole time, I'm just thinking about how I was walking. just got off a heart. Hang on this is not an excuse to just pile on. I'm very vulnerable this morning. I think I'm actually bow-legged. I don't think, Will, you're bow-legged, you just happen to swing your legs around one another when you walk. Four-way. This comes to the hips. I have long legs. You do have long legs. I was thinking about you watching all the hockey this weekend with you filling up that goal crease. You know you need a tall guy in there, right? I have a high corner. it on the ground stacking the pads. Oh sure. Stacking the pads. Instead of a butterfly. So Will with you being a Toronto fan are you keeping it with Canada and rooting for Montreal? I sure am. Yeah. I'm all the way. Yeah. And Sean who's your pick to win this cup? Between the two between Canada and over there at the well it looks like it's gonna be Vegas. record my picks. Do you remember that? Oh yeah for the Stanley Cup. Yeah. Yeah and so every week I would record the picks and why I they would win. Sean I'm gonna give you three guesses what the name of the team in Las Vegas is called. Mm-hmm the hockey team. Okay let me ask you this does it have something to do with the city itself? It does not. Yeah, it really doesn't. Yeah, they're not called the chips or the cards. What about? It's Elizabethan. I'll give you a hand. It's Elizabethan or it's like. Well, I mean, Kings, the Kings. Very close. That's close. I mean, it could be any of those. The Golden Knights. The Golden Knights. The Golden Knights. The Golden Knights. All right. I tell you who's golden. Oh, here he comes. Will's got a lunch. You guys like a segue. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. and won two Academy Awards of the five that she's been nominated for. Oh no, wait a second, five nominations. That's a... And in fact, she's the sole artist thus far to be, to be, to have received an Academy Award for both acting and screenwriting, acting for Howard Sandin. Screenwriting for sense and sensibility. Emma Thompson. Well, I'm not. She's going to, yeah. I can't even get into her credit since Emma Thompson. I'm at Thompson. No word. Hello. Nice to see you. I literally didn't understand a word of any of that. I love the people. Three guys talking about hockey. It's fascinating. I love your refugees on the floor in the background. Yeah, oh, can you see them? Yeah, sure. That's my daughter and her boyfriend. They can't hear you, which is just tragic is all they can hear is me and they're used to me. So why? Why don't you give them a chair to sit outside? Now where are you are you are you at their house or your house? No I'm I'm in my office actually I was looking behind Sean he's got a very posh kind of array you see it when it's good works back there there's like there's like loads of statues and portraits and photos and it's a mess and and and and Jason's got like some sky which is good and Will is in deep darkness which given the fact that he's giving us kind of power voice. It also works, you know. It's all making more and more sense. Yeah. Now we were making fun of Sean the other day because he had one of his awards behind him as as people do for some weird reason on their their Zoom frame usually includes any awards that one may have won. You don't have any awards behind you and you've won tons. Where are they all? Yeah, where are they? The Oscars are in the Leavattie. just keeps them in their place. The globes and the bfters and all that are on a very high shelf somewhere where I can't see them. I don't know. I think that's very British. We have a friend that has an award and she keeps it in the bathroom as well and puts the toilet roll on one of the extended rooms. It's a holder. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's taking it even further than me. You know what? I think that maybe you ought to go the other way, which is have a table right writing your foyer as you walk into your place with a spotlight. Yeah. Just lean into it. You know what I mean? So they know what they're dealing with. That's it. Or you just put them in the doorway like just so that when people come in they just trip up over them. Yeah. Yeah. You got so sorry, this is my Oscars. Sorry. I'll just move right this way. Yeah. Just on the floor. Do come through. Do come through. Would you like to freshen up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then have copies of copies of copies of them in the toilet. And then another, you know, just have them everywhere. I tell people just go, I need to leave. Lean into it. I think that that's a good idea. Where is your office? Are you in England or New York or Los Angeles? I'm so in England, but it doesn't feel like it today. We're all, with actually everyone is experiencing a trauma, a London, a London, a London, a London, a north of my life. I've lived on the street since I was six years old. So that six years. Anyway, suddenly we got a heat wave, which obviously has nothing to do with climate change. Why would we even suggest that? But it's 35 degrees in London. And, you know, things are just dying in front of you. Pets, household appliances, flower, everything is just wilting. And you know, Dracula's walked into the town. It's not a lot of air conditioning either, right? here is ridiculous. Or ice. We have three hot days a year. Or ice. But they're 36 degrees. Or ice. Right. Although that's coming. Emma, why is that? That's coming. Why is it that Europe on the whole? Why is it that Europe on the whole? I somehow all made a consensus decision. That that carbonated drinks don't taste better with ice cubes. I mean, it seems pretty clear that they do that it's just objectively true. That is just objectively true. That that carbonated that carbonated right that but yet they still you have to ask for ice with a with a so I sound like an ugly American here and I apologize no you're just obsessed with ice Americans have always been obsessed with ice when I used to you're obsessed with it I'm sorry that you are when I first arrived in America and ice was just it was just brought you were practically put in a fucking ice bath when you were so excited about it get in the ice you're gonna love it you're gonna love it everything came with ice you know chicken you know chicken What's going on here? This is mad. You're like obsessed with it. And we don't have that obsession because we don't have probably as much money or our refrigerators are not as big and they don't produce ice. We all get refrigges that say they produce ice and then within a week they've broken down. So what do you do to beat the heat? You just lie face down on the pavement panting. and whittle on you and call you down. I mean we don't have method. But here's the thing you just kind of you just take it. We don't we don't need to always be in our perfect comfort zones at all times. That's the whole point of life. There are things that happen. There are days where you're hot and you deal in there days that are cold. But it is true that in this country. I'm Canadian, by the way, Emma. I know you're can't you're can. I know you guys. of climate change look at my face I mean I'm the same color as one of the stripes in my shirt is tragic but you know it's like we're just not we're just not used to it and it's it's quite it's really weird yeah actually it's because it's happening it's happening it's happened what how was it last summer it was super hot there too right Europe had a huge huge everybody's point there's no air conditioning we were staying in a place that at air conditioning but as there was and we were rehearsing in a place that was like a greenhouse with no. Yeah and what about the theater Sean would did the theater have air conditioning in the theater? No air conditioning in the theater. What's your experience like when you take the tube? Come on because we've never needed it before and we haven't adapted yet to climate change I want to am I want to am a you're talking about taking the tube what's your experience like when you take the tube are you take the tube are you're constantly and mobbed by people asking you questions and no no no no no not at all nobody takes any notice on the tube they're all looking at their phones yeah but my guess is that when they when they do recognize you it's something very charming and respectful and and they say which movie that they love is like she's a respected actor as opposed to like a celebrity like you see a celebrity out it's like it's like a giraffe is escape the zoo and you got to get a I'm very lucky I think because it's the same in Europe people have a relationship with I don't know what it's like for you guys but you know you must have this Jason that people have a relationship with a particular role that you might have played or maybe a couple and we've done lots and lots of different things so that I think if for instance you're sort of an action hero I can imagine that for somebody like I don't know shorts and I'm Bruce Willis you know then there's a very specific response every single time but for me you know I can pass not necessarily unnoticed but certainly it's never been a an issue actually what's your what's your what's your least favorite kind of of interaction with a fan like when you're with your family or what's your least favorite kind of interaction with a fan like when you're with your family or I mean because it's like I always get embarrassed if it ever causes like a scene in other words grabs the attention of others that might not otherwise know who I am or notice it you know like it's it's great one it's just sort of mellow and quiet and and passing right yes I mean it's lovely and people will just pass you and still keep walking yeah you go love your work bye daughter, you don't really want them to come up and go, can I have a selfie? Selfies are interesting, aren't they? How do you guys feel about those? Right. How do you feel about the, do you feel that they're intrusive at all? What do you think? Well, no, but I would have noticed is that in the old days, it used to be autographs, and if you didn't have a piece of paper or a pen, then it was just, hey, nice to meet you and like your work and it was a night. But now, but now everybody's, everybody's, everybody's, everybody's got, everybody's got an autograph, right, slash picture, you still sort of feel obligated, well I better take this, you know. And so people kind of line up a little bit. And anyway, I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining. Do you ever say no? No, never. Never.