What Does Emma Thompson Dream About? in American Eagle Latitudes

By : Celeste Rodas de Juárez

At 45, Emma Thompson has amassed an impressive number of awards and honors, among them two Oscars and two Golden Globes. She was also named one of the “100 Best Movie Stars of All Time” by U.K.’s Empire magazine.

With her innate talent (her mother was an actress and her father was a theater director who also created the children’s series “Magic Roundabout”), it’s no surprise that at 21Thompson—while studying English Literature at the University of Cambridge —co-produced, directed and acted in the university’s first all-female musical revue, Woman’s Hour.

Since then, her career has been nonstop: an array of highly acclaimed roles in several British TV shows, her own show (“Short Vehicle”) and work with the Renaissance Theatre Company. She accomplished all this before venturing onto the big screen with such films as Dead Again, Junior, Sense and Sensibility, The Winter Guest, Primary Colors, Love Actually and even Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (to be released June 4), in which she cameos as Sybill Trelawney, an eccentric professor.

Her newest film, Imagining Argentina (to be released in the U.S. in May or June, according to Arenas Entertainment), is the reason for our interview. The movie, set in Argentina of the 1970s, is about an outspoken journalist (Thompson) who disappears and her husband’s (Antonio Banderas) search for her and other victims of dictatorship. It’s a crisp spring morning and Thompson has just finished sharing a meal with her daughter.

We hear your daughter (Gaia Romilly, 4) playing in the background. Are we interrupting a family moment?
Not really. We just finished eating and now I’m getting ready to continue working. I’m putting the finishing touches to Nanny McPhee, a children’s tale that we’ll begin filming in a few days. While I work, I like to watch my daughter play, so I can spend more time with her.

You constantly receive dozens of scripts. What was it about Imagining Argentina that made you want to take part in the movie?
I think it’s very important to see and listen to stories of what has occurred in other countries as well as your own to ensure that mistakes are never repeated. That’s one of the reasons I’ve always been keenly interested in the importance of human rights and in Chile’s and Argentina’s turbulent history, especially with the unfortunate events that took place during those hard times. That’s why I’ve always been drawn to this type of role. And if we add to this the fact that the director and screenwriter is Christopher Hampton, making up my mind was not hard at all.

How did you prepare for the role of Cecilia Rueda, the movie’s heroine?
I did nothing out of the ordinary because it’s about a journalist, and it wasn’t hard for me to imagine the passion of such an extremely idealistic woman—somebody who’s so passionate about her country and about doing what is right that she totally forgets about the inherent dangers of telling the truth. Also, since I had read for several years about what happened in Argentina during those times, I didn’t have to do any special research.

The hardest part was that this role demanded a lot emotionally. Additionally, we had a very small budget, so we faced some difficulties. Fortunately, this film came out very good, thanks in large part to the dedication of the entire team. We were all incredibly passionate about telling it—and I’m not just referring to the actors (Antonio Banderas, Rubén Blades, Claire Bloom)—but also the technicians and people behind the cameras who made it possible: many of them had personally experienced abuse similar to those shown in the film. That’s why it was so emotional working on this project.

How did you develop an interest in this subject?
When I was 16, I joined Amnesty International, and I’ve been reading about all this since I was a teenager. By age 20, I was already politically aware of what was occurring in the world. Since then I’ve joined groups and organizations dealing with these problems, and it’s become one of the true passions in my life.

Family Matters

Another of your great passions is acting. the fact that your parents were involved in the arts probably tremendously influenced your career path. Do you recall one of those times when you felt a special connection with acting?
Oh, I was so young—I was only a little girl! I remember that every time they took me to the theater, I got terribly excited. I was fascinated with the smell of the theater, the audience’s reaction and to see so many people. Since I like people so much, I’ve always wanted to communicate with them.

You once mentioned that being the daughter of actors had greatly enriched your life. Could you explain in what manner?
In many ways. For example, in regards to personality, it makes you more tolerant, more open…Absolutely and certainly, one is much more dramatic—and sometimes more neurotic. From childhood, the children of actors always learn to interact well with adults because our parents talk to us naturally and not as if we’re from another planet.

Have you found out the reason for this?
I think so: I think it’s because they (the parents of actors) are still kids at heart. This enables them—and now I should say us—to talk to them as equals.

Despite your early exposure to theater and the advantages of having contacts in this field, you chose to pursue a college education. Why?
I’ve always believed in the importance of an education. Of course, you later realize that college can be very good, as well as bad. My college experience was very positive because I made great friends. I also realized that, in some ways, it could interfere with your own questions because it bombards you with various different perspectives. In conclusion, I think that if you weigh the pros and cons, a college education is always good training for your brain. Additionally, in my case, it trained me as a comedienne, and I learned a lot from those first acting sessions with my dear colleagues.

Life’s Lessons

Your best career opportunities came at one of the most tragic moments in your life, when your father passed away. Where you able to enjoy your success after such a tragic loss?
My sister, mother and I are very proud to have been able to face such a great loss together. That helped us get through it, even though I was only 23 years old, my sister was 21 and my mother 48. We were relatively young to have lost our father, and our mother was also young to become a widow. However, we all knew what we had to do, which was to continue working to survive, not just emotionally, but economically, as well. This helped keep us busy and maintain our financial independence.

What do you dream of after having won two Oscars and two Golden Globes?
To be useful to society and show others that they should not only live life but enjoy it as well. But above all, to try to help other people. The greatest satisfaction in life comes not from your own personal achievements—even though it’s quite lovely to create things and be successful with them—but rather from what you do to make other people happy. The more you help others, the happier you’ll be, and that’s why you have to set aside time to meditate, dream and fight for new ways to achieve that.

In keeping with her tireless role as an activist helping to raise awareness about various social and political problems, Thompson took a few months off from her work as an actor to be an ambassador for ActionAid. In 2002, she spent some time in Mozambique and Uganda, two of the worst-hit countries with AIDS, to meet with some of the victims and create social awareness on an international level about the disease.

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