Kristin Scott Thomas
Kristin Scott Thomas | |
---|---|
Born | Kristin Ann Scott Thomas 24 May 1960 |
Nationality | British |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1984–present |
Spouse | |
Children | 3 |
Relatives | Serena Scott Thomas (sister) |
Dame Kristin Ann Scott Thomas[1] DBE (born 24 May 1960) is a British actress.[2] A five-time BAFTA Award nominee and five-time Olivier Award nominee, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and the Olivier Award for Best Actress in 2008 for the Royal Court revival of The Seagull. She was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for The English Patient (1996).
Scott Thomas made her film debut in the Prince-directed Under the Cherry Moon (1986),[3] and won the Evening Standard Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer for A Handful of Dust (1988). She has worked in French cinema, including in The Valet (2006), Tell No One (2007), Leaving (2009), Love Crime (2010), Sarah's Key (2010), and won the European Film Award for Best Actress for Philippe Claudel's I've Loved You So Long (2008). Her other films include Bitter Moon (1992), Mission: Impossible (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), Gosford Park (2001), Nowhere Boy (2010), and Darkest Hour (2017).
Early life
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,[4] Lieutenant Commander Simon Scott Thomas, a pilot in the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm who died in a flying accident when Kristin was aged five.[5][6] She is the elder sister of actress Serena Scott Thomas, the niece of Admiral Sir Richard Thomas (a former Black Rod, the parliamentary ceremonial officer in the House of Lords),[7] and the great-great-niece of the ill-fated explorer Captain Scott, who lost the race to the South Pole.[8]
Scott Thomas was brought up as a Roman Catholic.[9][10] Her childhood home was in Trent, Dorset, England. Her mother remarried, to another Royal Navy pilot, Lt Cdr Simon Idiens (of Simon's Sircus aerobatic team flying Sea Vixens) who also died in a flying accident, flying a Phantom FG1 off the North Cornwall coast, 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.[11] 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 breakthrough 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.
In 1994, she starred in the Romanian-French film An Unforgettable Summer, in which she played Marie-Thérèse Von Debretsy. Rather than learn Romanian for the part, she read her lines phonetically.[12] She had all the lines translated into French, which she speaks fluently, so she knew what she was saying.[13][14] In a 2002 interview for WENN, Kristin stated that this is the film that she is most proud of and that she views it as the peak of her career.[15][better source needed] In an interview for Gloucester Citizen on March 22, 2015, she cited An Unforgettable Summer as one of the films that she's most proud of alongside The English Patient and Only God Forgives.[16]
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 to the 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.[17] She reprised the role in New York in September 2008.[18] 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. In 2014, she appeared at The Old Vic in the title role of Sophocles's Electra.
Scott Thomas also has acted in French films. 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 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 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 in Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, as an American journalist living in Paris who discovers that the flat her husband is renovating for them was once the home of a Jewish family who were evicted.
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).[19] and was also seen in Ralph Fiennes's The Invisible Woman, in Philippe Claudel's Before the Winter Chill, in Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives, which premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, Israel Horovitz's My Old Lady, and the film adaptation of Irène Némirovsky's World War II novel Suite Française, directed by Saul Dibb.
In May 2017, it was reported that Scott Thomas has signed on to star as BMW heiress Susanne Klatten in the thriller Paramour, directed by Alexandra-Therese Keining.[20]
She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2003 Birthday Honours and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to drama.[21][22] She was named a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by the French Government in 2005.[23][24]
Personal life
Scott Thomas is divorced from François Olivennes, a French gynaecologist, with whom she has three children: Hannah (born in 1988), Joseph (1991) and George (2000). She has lived in France since she was 19, brought up her three children in Paris,[25] and sometimes considers herself more French than British.[26][27][28]
She was listed as one of the fifty best-dressed women over 50 by The Guardian in March 2013.[29]
Filmography
Theatre
- La Lune déclinante sur 4 ou 5 personnes qui dansent (1983, Festival de Semur en Auxois)
- Terre étrangère (1984, Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers)
- 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
- The Seagull (2008, Walter Kerr Theatre, New York) ... Arkadina[30]
- Harold Pinter's Betrayal (2011, Comedy Theatre, London) ... Emma[31]
- Harold Pinter's Old Times (2013, Harold Pinter Theatre London) ... Kate/Anna[32]
- Sophocles' Electra (2014, The Old Vic, London) ... Electra[33]
- Peter Morgan's The Audience (2015, Apollo Theatre, London) ... Queen Elizabeth II[34]
Olivier Awards
Year | Category | Play | Result |
---|---|---|---|
2004 | Best Actress | Three Sisters | Nominated |
2008 | Best Actress | The Seagull | Won |
2012 | Best Actress | Betrayal | Nominated |
2013 | Best Actress | Old Times | Nominated |
2015 | Best Actress | Electra | Nominated |
National honours
References
- ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas". BFI.
- ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas is bored with being labelled an ice queen".
- ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas". Yahoo Movies Canada. Archived from the original on 4 September 2014.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Scene change". The Age. Melbourne. 12 October 2003.
- ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas Biography (1960-)". filmreference.com.
- ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas learning to be herself". The New Zealand Herald. The Observer. 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
- ^ "Black Rod".
- ^ "- Person Page 2292". thepeerage.com.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Foreign Accents". The New Yorker. 14 October 1996. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
- ^ "Scott Thomas Recalls Romanian Film". Backstage. 8 January 2002. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
- ^ "An Unforgettable Summer (Un été inoubliable)". Eurocinema World. Retrieved 6 May 2017.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas Most Proud Of Obscure Romanian Film". IMDb. 3 January 2002. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
- ^ "Big Interview: Kristin Scott Thomas reveals all about her new role". Gloucester Citizen. 22 March 2015. Retrieved 6 May 2017.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kristin Scott Thomas Win 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards". Playbill. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ What's On Stage.Speeches: And the Laurence Olivier Winners Said Retrieved: 5 June 2011 Archived 9 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Carole Horst (19 May 2009). "Rob Pattinson to star in 'Bel Ami'". Variety. Retrieved 11 January 2010.
- ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas to star in thriller 'Paramour'". ScreenDaily. 12 May 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
- ^ "No. 61092". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2014. p. N8.
- ^ 2015 New Year Honours List Archived 2 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas is bored with being labelled an ice queen". The Telegraph. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
- ^ "Interview with Kristin Scott Thomas". The Guardian. 2 February 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
- ^ "No mystery why we've loved Kristin Scott Thomas for so long..." The Independent. 3 February 2012. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
- ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas awarded higher Légion d'honneur by France". The Guardian. 14 July 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
- ^ Cartner-Morley, Jess; Mirren, Helen; Huffington, Arianna; Amos, Valerie (28 March 2013). "The 50 best-dressed over 50s". The Guardian. London.
- ^ "Seagull Revival, with Kristin Scott Thomas and Peter Sarsgaard, Opens on Broadway Oct. 2". playbill.com. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
- ^ 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?". London: The Independent. 29 January 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ "Old Vic stages Kevin Spacey as Darrow and Kristin Scott Thomas in Electra". whatsonstage.com. Retrieved 10 May 2014.
- ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas to star as the Queen in return of the Audience". theguardian.com. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
External links
- Kristin Scott Thomas at IMDb
- Kristin Scott Thomas at the Internet Broadway 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
- Use dmy dates from August 2011
- 1960 births
- Living people
- People from Redruth
- People educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College
- People from West Dorset (district)
- 20th-century English actresses
- 21st-century English actresses
- Actresses awarded British damehoods
- Best Supporting Actress BAFTA Award winners
- English expatriates in France
- English film actresses
- English stage actresses
- English television actresses
- European Film Award for Best Actress winners
- Best Actress Lumières Award winners
- Laurence Olivier Award winners
- Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- Légion d'honneur recipients
- Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- People educated at Leweston School