Kristin Scott Thomas
| Kristin Scott Thomas | |
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 Scott Thomas at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival |
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| Born | Kristin A. Scott Thomas 24 May 1960 Redruth, Cornwall, England, UK |
| Nationality | British, French |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1984–present |
| Spouse(s) | François Olivennes (1987–2005; 3 children) |
Kristin A. Scott Thomas,[1]OBE (born 24 May 1960) is an English-French actress. She gained international recognition in the 1990s for her roles in Bitter Moon, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The English Patient and Nowhere Boy.
Since the 1980s, she has also worked in French cinema in films such as the thriller Tell No One and Philippe Claudel's I've Loved You So Long. She has lived in France since she was 19, has brought up her three children in Paris, and says she considers herself more French than British.[2] She was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 2005.
Scott Thomas is also the official Ambassador for Accor's MGallery Collection of hotels and resorts.
Early life
Kristin Scott Thomas was born in Redruth, Cornwall. Her mother, Deborah (née Hurlbatt), was brought up in Hong Kong and Africa, and studied drama before marrying Kristin's father,[3]Lieutenant Commander Simon Scott Thomas, a pilot for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm who died in a flying accident when Kristin was five.[4][5] She is the elder sister of actress Serena Scott Thomas, the niece of Admiral Sir Richard Thomas (who was a Black Rod in the House of Lords), and a more distant great-great-niece of Captain Scott, the ill-fated explorer who lost the race to the South Pole.
Scott Thomas was brought up as a Roman Catholic.[6][7] Her childhood home was in Trent, Dorset, England. Her mother remarried, to another Royal Navy pilot, who also died in a flying accident, six years after the death of her father. Scott Thomas was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and St. Antony's Leweston in Sherborne, Dorset, both independent schools. On leaving school she moved to Hampstead, London, and worked in a department store. She then began training to be a drama teacher at the Central School of Speech and Drama. On being told she would never be a good enough actress, she left at the age of 19 to work as an au pair in Paris.[8] Speaking French fluently, she studied acting at the École nationale supérieure des arts et techniques du théâtre (ENSATT) in Paris, and at age 25 on graduation, was cast opposite pop star Prince as Mary Sharon, a French heiress, in the 1986 film Under The Cherry Moon.
Career
Her real breakout role was in a 1988 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust, where she won an Evening Standard British Film Award for most promising newcomer. This was followed by roles opposite Hugh Grant in Bitter Moon and Four Weddings and a Funeral where she won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress. 1996 saw the release of her most famous role as Katharine Clifton in The English Patient, which gained her Golden Globe and Oscar nominations as well as critical acclaim. This was followed by a brief period working in Hollywood on films such as The Horse Whisperer with Robert Redford and Random Hearts with Harrison Ford. However, growing disillusioned with Hollywood, she took a year off to give birth to her third child.
She returned on stage in 2001 when she played the title role in a French theatre production of Racine's Berenice and on screen as Lady Sylvia McCordle in Robert Altman's critically acclaimed Gosford Park. This started a critically acclaimed second career on stage, in which she has received four nominations for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress, including one win, for her performance of Arkadina in a London West End production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull.[9] She reprised the role in New York in September 2008.[10] In summer 2011 Scott Thomas returned to London's West End to star as Emma in Harold Pinter's Betrayal at the Comedy Theatre. The revival was directed by Ian Rickson. Her husband was played by Ben Miles and the love triangle was completed by Douglas Henshall. In January 2013, she starred in another Pinter play, Old Times, again directed by Ian Rickson.
Scott Thomas also has a fascinating career in French cinema. In 2006, she played the role of Hélène, in French, in Ne le dis à personne (Tell No One), by French director Guillaume Canet. In 2008, Scott Thomas received many accolades for her performance in another French film, Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (I've Loved You So Long), including BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress. In 2009 she also played the role of a wife who leaves her husband for another man in the film Leaving. In Sarah's Key (2010), Scott Thomas starred as an American journalist living in Paris who discovers that the apartment her husband is renovating for them was once the home of a Jewish family who were taken away in the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup. Scott Thomas has said that working in French cinema has allowed her to escape being typecast as a frosty aristocrat.
Other recent roles include the role of Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire and Ormond, mother of Henry VIII's second wife Anne, in The Other Boleyn Girl, the role of a fashion magazine creator and editor in the film Confessions of a Shopaholic,the film adaption of Douglas Kennedy's novel The Woman in the Fifth, the 2012 film Bel Ami, based on the 1885 Maupassant novel, as a love interest of George Duroy (played by Robert Pattinson).[11] and will next be seen in Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives, which will premier at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
She was awarded an OBE in the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours list, and was also made a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by the French government in 2005.[12][13]
Scott Thomas is a frequent subject on the British motoring programme Top Gear. She was used as a standard of reference for "good taste", such as during the "Cool Wall" segment of the programme. Presenter Jeremy Clarkson would rate a car's coolness based mostly on what he thought Scott Thomas's level of distaste for it would be. She appeared as the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" on the episode broadcast on 25 February 2007 (Series 9, Episode 5) and, proceeded to rubbish most of the decisions Clarkson had made over the past years of the Cool Wall. She also ridiculed the car that he had just ordered, a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder. She completed her lap in a time of 1min 54secs, placing her just above Philip Glenister, although still near the bottom of the leaderboard.
Personal life
Scott Thomas is divorced from French gynaecologist François Olivennes, with whom she has three children: Hannah (born in 1988), Joseph (1991), and George (2000).
The separation was reportedly precipitated by her romantic involvement with English actor Tobias Menzies, whom she met while appearing in Chekhov's play Three Sisters in London's West End around 2003.[14] Menzies was also her co-star in a London production of Pirandello's As You Desire Me in 2006.[15]
She was listed as one of the fifty best-dressed over 50s by the Guardian in March 2013.[16]
Filmography
Theatre
- La Lune déclinante sur 4 ou 5 personnes qui dansent (1983, Festival de Semur en Auxois)
- Terre étrangère (1984, Théâtre des Amandiers de Nanterre)
- Naïves Hirondelles (1984, Festival d'Avignon)
- Yes, peut-être (1985, in a field in Burgundy)
- Bérénice (2001, Festival de Perpignan and Festival d'Avignon + national tour)
- Three Sisters (2003, Playhouse Theatre, London) ... Masha
- As You Desire Me (2005–06, Playhouse Theatre, London) ... Elma
- The Seagull (2007, Royal Court Theatre, London) ... Arkadina
- Laurence Olivier Awards Best Actress – The Seagull
- Harold Pinter's Betrayal (2011, Comedy Theatre, London) ... Emma[17]
- Harold Pinter's Old Times (2013, Harold Pinter Theatre London) ... Kate/Anna [18]
Quotes
- I never go straight to the point if I can go the most difficult way. Why be simple when you can be complicated? – (Graham Fuller, The Cover Interview: Kristin Scott Thomas, originally published in Interview Magazine, November 1996)
References
- ^ BFI | Film & TV Database | SCOTT THOMAS, Kristin
- ^ INTERVIEW : Kristin Scott Thomas
- ^ "Scene change". The Age (Melbourne). 12 October 2003.
- ^ Kristin Scott Thomas Biography (1960–)
- ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas learning to be herself". The New Zealand Herald. The Observer. 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
- ^ Hattenstone, Simon (27 March 2003). "'I'm a horrible bully'". The Guardian (UK). Retrieved 22 June 2010. "She was brought up as a Catholic and felt guilty about everything."
- ^ Hattersley, Giles (21 September 2008). "Kristin Scott Thomas, haughty but nice". The Sunday Times (UK). Retrieved 22 June 2010.
- ^ Anstead, Mark (10 June 2007). "On the move Kristin Scott Thomas". The Times (London). Retrieved 7 May 2010.
- ^ Playbill News: Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kristin Scott Thomas Win 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards
- ^ What's On Stage.Speeches: And the Laurence Olivier Winners Said Retrieved: 5 June 2011
- ^ Carole Horst (19 May 2009). "Rob Pattinson to star in 'Bel Ami'". Variety. Retrieved 11 January 2010.
- ^ "English rose at home in Paris". The Connexion. March 2011. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
- ^ "Clash de la semaine : Kristin Scott Thomas VS Sharon Stone". Excessif (in French). 1 February 2011. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
- ^ Preston, John (17 October 2005). "I'm very wary of trust". The Daily Telegraph (London).
- ^ Gilbey, Ryan (27 July 2007). "The three stages of Kristin". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 7 May 2010.
- ^ "The 50 best-dressed over 50s". The Guardian.
- ^ Comedy Theatre website "Ambassador Theatre Group's AmbassadorTickets.com", accessed 24 June 2011.
- ^ "Role-swapping: just a gimmick or an extra dimension to the drama?". The Independent. 29 January 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kristin Scott Thomas |
- Kristin Scott Thomas at the Internet Movie Database
- Ryan Gilbey, "The three stages of Kristin", interview, The Guardian, 27 July 2007
- Mark Anstead, "Kristin Scott Thomas: The Ice Maiden thaws", interview, Daily Mail, 8 June 2007
- Louise France, "I'm 47. Unlike most actresses I don't lie about my age" Interview, The Guardian, 3 February 2008
- Betrayal, "Comedy Theatre Review", The Telegraph, 17 June 2011
- Betrayal - Review, "Comedy Theatre London", The Guardian, 17 June 2011
- First Night: Betrayal, "Comedy Theatre London", The Independent', 17 June 2011
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