EMMA THOMSON (SYBIL TRELAWNEY)
Emma Thompson was born in London on April 15, 1959, into a
family of actors - her father was
Eric Thompson, who has passed away, and her mother,
Phyllida Law, has co-starred
with Thompson in several films (her sister,
Sophie Thompson, is an actor
as well). Thompson's wit was earlier cultivated by a cheerful, clever, creative
family atmosphere, and she was a popular and successful student. She attended
Cambridge University, studying English Literature, and was part of the
university's Footlights Group, the famous group where, previously, many of the
Monty Python members had first met.
Thompson graduated in 1980 and embarked on her career in entertainment,
beginning with stints on BBC radio and touring with comedy shows. She soon got
her first major break in television, on the comedy skit program
"Alfresco" (1983), writing
and performing along with her fellow Footlights Group alums
Stephen Fry and
Hugh Laurie. She also worked
on other TV comedy review programs in the mid-1980s, occasionally with some of
her fellow Footlights alums, and often with actor
Robbie Coltrane.
Thompson found herself collaborating again with Fry in 1985, this time in his
stage adaptation of the play "Me and My Girl" in London's West End, in which she
had a leading role, playing Sally Smith. The show was a success and she received
favorable reviews, and the strength of her performance led to her casting as the
lead in the BBC television miniseries
"Fortunes of War" (1987)
(mini), in which Thompson and her co-star,
Kenneth Branagh, play an
English ex-patriate couple living in Eastern Europe as the Second World War
erupts. Thompson won a BAFTA
award for her work on the program. She married Branagh in 1989, continued to
work with him professionally, and formed a production company with him. In the
late 80s and early 90s, she starred in a string of well-received and successful
television and film productions, most notably her lead role in the
Merchant-Ivory production of
Howards End (1992), which confirmed her ability to carry a movie on both
sides of the Atlantic and appropriately showered her with trans-Atlantic honors
- both an Oscar and a BAFTA award.
Since then, Thompson has continued to move effortlessly between the art film
world and mainstream Hollywood, though even her Hollywood roles tend to be in
more up-market productions. She continues to work on television as well, but is
generally very selective about which roles she takes. She writes for the screen
as well, such as the screenplay for
Ang Lee's
Sense and Sensibility (1995),
in which she also starred as Elinor Dashwood, and the teleplay adaptation of
Margaret Edson's acclaimed
play Wit (2001) (TV), in
which she also starred.
Thompson is known for her sophisticated, skillful, though her critics say
somewhat mannered, performances, and of course for her arch wit, which she is
unafraid to point at herself - she is a fearless self-satirist. Thompson and
Branagh divorced in 1994, and Thompson is now married to fellow actor
Greg Wise, who had played
Willoughby in Ang Lee's
Sense and Sensibility (1995).
Thompson and Wise have one child, Gaia, born in 1999.
Greg Wise | (29 July 2003 - present) 1 child |
Kenneth Branagh | (20 August 1989 - October 1995) (divorced) |
Her daughter's name is Gaia Romilly Wise.
On Saturday 4th December 1999 Emma gave birth to her first child with boyfriend Greg Wise and jokingly called her "jane.com".
Living with Greg Wise. [1997]
Ranked #91 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Graduated from Camden School for Girls, and the all-women Newnham College of Cambridge University with a degree in English (1982)
Cambridge Footlights Revue (198?) with Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry.
She co-wrote, co-produced, and co-directed Cambridge University's first all-female revue "Woman's Hour" in 1983.
Elder sister of Sophie Thompson.
Was named to the Board of Advisors for Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival (previously Fahrenheit Theater Company) in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Her mother is Phyllida Law, who has appeared in several movies with her.
Father is stage director Eric Thompson.
Was originally slated to play the role of "God" in Kevin Smith's Dogma (1999). She was unable to perform due to her pregnancy.
Turned down the Jodie Foster role in Anna and the King (1999).
She was initially cast as the lead in Basic Instinct (1992), but refused later on. About Sharon Stone's appearance she said: “As far as I can see, from Sharon Stone's love scene in "Basic Instinct", they molded her body out of tough Plasticine. She was shagging Michael Douglas like a donkey, and not an inch moved. If that had been me, there would have been things flying around hitting me in the eye.”
Speaks French and Spanish fluently.
Lives across the street from her mother and down the street from her sister.
Her brother-in-law is Richard Lumsden, a British actor-comedian.
She was ranked fifth in the 2001 Orange Film Survey of greatest British film actresses.
One of only ten actors who have been nominated for both a Supporting and Lead Acting Academy Award in the same year for their achievements in two different movies. The other nine are Fay Bainter, Teresa Wright, Barry Fitzgerald (nominated in both categories for the same role in the same movie), Jessica Lange, Sigourney Weaver, Al Pacino , Holly Hunter, Julianne Moore and Jamie Foxx. Holly Hunter received her double-nomination in the same year that Thompson did.
Has one song dedicated to her and named after her, on famous French singer Georges Moustaki's album, "Moustaki", released in 2003.
She is the only person to have won Academy awards for both acting and writing. She won Best Actress for Howards End (1992), and Best Adapted Screenplay for Sense and Sensibility (1995).
Accepted the role of Professor Trelawny in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) to impress her daughter, Gaia.
Shares birthday with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) co-star Emma Watson.
Read English Literature at Cambridge.
Keeps her Oscar statuettes in her bathroom
Her performance as Miss Kenton in The Remains of the Day (1993) is ranked #52 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
"I have a nervous breakdown in the film and in one scene I get to stand at the top of the stairs waving an empty sherry bottle which is, of course, a typical scene from my daily life, so isn't much of a stretch." -- on her role in the Harry Potter film.
"I can't stand this new culture of the instant disposable celebrity. It's all so vulgar."
"I am who I am and there is nothing I can do about that."
"I have periods of intense activity, then stop. My ideal is to work hard in the morning until I pick Gaia up from school. Just putting an empty square in my diary seems to make a space in my head, too. You have to be very good at saying no."
"'My appearance has changed a lot over the years, but it has far more to do with how I feel about being a woman. I've never thought of myself as vain. When I was at Cambridge, I shaved my head and wore baggy clothes. What I did was to desexualise myself. It was partly to do with the feminism of that time: militant and grungy. That's all changed now, though I don't think it is liberating to get your tits out. I don't hold with that. But I am much more comfortable with being a woman now than I was in my twenties."
"But when I lose my temper, I find it difficult to forgive myself. I feel I've failed. I can be calm in a crisis, in the face of death or things that hurt badly. I don't get hysterical, which may be masochistic of me. But in small matters, I am not calm at all. My worst quality is impatience."
"I mind having to look pretty, that's what I mind, because it is so much more of an effort."
"Liam Neeson, quite frankly, is sex on legs. Always has been".
"Children are much more understanding of the suddenness and arbitrariness of death than we are. The old fairy tales contain a lot of that, and we've stolen from them, just as they stole from Greek myth, which has that same mixture of pre-Christian chaos."
"I've realized that in all the great stories, even if there's a happily-ever-after ending, there's something sad.
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