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We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature. Whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to, or the succulents that adorn our homes, nature makes all of our lives, well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. but the outdoors is closer than we realize.
With All Trails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently. With offline maps and on-trail navigation, download the free app today. This is Tracy Smith. Kristen Scott Thomas is a prolific Oscar-nominated performer, but in her latest movie, she not only acts, but also directs Lee Cowan on the many roles of Kristen Scott Thomas.
Sounds like you've been waiting. for some time For you to find something that you wanted to write and/or direct. Are you surprised that this is what you landed on?
Well they always say, you know, write what you know or talk about what you know.
So this subject I did know. Um When I was a child, I was the eldest of five children. And when I was five, my father was killed, and my mother remarried. My mother was pregnant when she lost her first husband. She remarried.
And Tragically, he was killed five years later, leaving my mother with another child.
So she had five children and she was widowed, had been widowed twice. And I was six, almost no, five and a half, when I lost my father. Just 11 when my stepdad was killed. And my two brothers, one was born, you know, they were tiny when. One wasn't even born when his father died, and the other brother was only two when his father died.
So you can see they had nothing to hang their hat on. And I felt as a sort of keeper of memories, what would be a really nice thing to do would be to make animated films of my memories of My father, because I was the sort of keeper of the memories, if you like, because I was the eldest.
So I decided to put pen to paper and write these little scenes. I have a friend who is a brilliant animated film producer, and she introduced me to this chap, Reza Railli, who did these beautiful drawings. And then from there, The idea that this could actually become a feature film and could interest more people than just my brothers and sisters, it grew from there.
So it started with the drawings? It started with the desire for drawings, yeah. Really? Yeah. Because I'm very interested in memory and how it works.
Yeah. Because you, I mean, we all have different memories of the same events. Oh, that's fascinating. I was going to ask you about that. Why the.
why the flashbacks were all in Yeah.
Well, because I think also the reason I did them I wanted to do them like that was because I think, you know, memory is unreliable um and you can And the way of doing it in in animated form seemed to sort of symbolize that, rather, and it became slightly unreal, and the emotion is real. But the image is not. And so often with memory, that's the same thing. You can feel something, but you quite can't remember how you got there. Yeah, it was very effective.
Very effective. You wrote this with your husband. My now husband, yes. That's the rom-com. How did that work?
He's a known writer in his own right, obviously, but not a lot of people. I found him to be very good on structure and very good on sort of narrative. And I was much better on dialogue.
So every time he d wrote down what they were saying, I'll just cross that out. No, no one would speak like that. And then we do it like that. But yeah. It was actually really fun.
Really, really fun to do, yeah. That's great. When it comes to filmmaking, you don't necessarily like being told where to go and when to do this and when to do that. Oh, you know, I don't know when I said that, but it must have changed. I mean, the funny thing about.
Having a really long career is that I may have said something in 1986. And that has, you know, so I've developed as an actress, I've developed as a person, you know, it's a whole lifetime since then. In fact, three lifetimes, because I've had three children, but you know, it's. It's quite You know, you go down on record for something you said such a long time ago.
So, anyway, what did I say? What idiocy did I say? Was it I don't like being told where to stand and where to. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think I've improved since then.
But it sounds like uh in in this case Because Because you're an actor, you knew when it came to directing sort of What the actors wanted to hear, or at least how you could phrase things? I think being an actor really helps. directing other actors. I know that Robert Redford, for example, was a completely brilliant director for me. Sidney Pollack was a brilliant director for me.
He was an actor as well. Extremely lucky with my actresses. I mean, they were all like, you know. Amazing people, amazing actresses. It was rather like, I often compare it to being given a.
A very big and smart Ferrari to drive. You know, you press one button, it does that, and you press another button, it does that. It was very, very, very exciting to be given such powerful actresses. Did some of their performances surprise you? Oh, completely all the time.
And it gave me a new respect for acting. Watching, directing them. Because I've always sort of taken it for granted. You know, you turn up, you stand on your. your li on your mark and you say the words and Some people are nervous, some people aren't, some people are really kind of They need a lot of concentration, they have to do it the way they want to do it, they can't do it any other way, you know, they've decided how they're going to play it.
But that, you know, but I'm sort of used to that, I just took it for granted. But now, being a director, I've seen how somebody with huge talent like any of my actresses. how they can make magic happen and you hadn't even thought of that. It really dawned on me that talent is something really exquisite and Um and precious. And with these, particularly the Three Sisters and Frida Pinto, it was just so amazing to see how they would.
Understand. My question, understand what I wanted to see on the screen. and then give it a twist and a bit of magic. When you talk about working with other directors like Sidney Pollock and Robert Redford, what did you? What did you learn from them?
This is in my late thirties. And I just had a huge amount of success with the English patient. And then suddenly I was sort of thrust into this world of major movie making. And I think it was very defensive. And I was a bit scared, very defensive.
and I think it was Sidney Pollock. Or it might have been Robert Redford. Take your pick. Either one is a good strike. They said to one of them said to me, you know, you have to be generous.
You have to Forget what you're trying to defend, forget trying to hide. Be more generous. And I'm not sure I really understood what he meant by that. Until I started Just It just planted a seed and then I was able to kind of unzip a bit more. and be less defensive and less Um And just be more generous, be more generous in the way that I was showing the emotions.
Being more generous in the way I was feeling the emotions and being more generous towards my character. i.e. not making her so brittle or edgy or prickly or you know, just be kinder, really. Making this film is to tell a story about people, about sisters. about family and about loss and about love.
The uh the monologue that you have in the in the cemetery toward the end. Um Kind of sums up. Everything. What what were you thinking? Either when you wrote that or when you were performing it.
I think when we were doing that scene I was very aware at the time of how. much time as a younger woman I had sort of wasted. Um being Um Suffice. not not searching for the you know the for the man who was going to make me happy. Um Or being dissatisfied, or thinking this isn't good enough, or that isn't good enough, or something's missing from my life.
I know a lot of that time that you spend Um When your body is in one room and your brain is in another. You know, it's sort of. And I thought about that and I thought about all that the people thinking that there has to be some sort of magic wand that's going to make everything better. Um and I know that a lot of the time when I was a younger woman Um I ha had this this feeling of something missing. This piece of my puzzle missing.
And that was, you know, As I describe in the film. Very much. having grown up with only one parent. Yeah. you know, and really growing up with only one parent.
Um And if only I'd had a daddy, I would have been alright, you know, the sort of thing. Um When you look back, it's your dad's, both your dad and your stepdad really dedicated their lives. To the country. But what the film explores really is: it's the family that's. That's left behind, is that left behind?
aspect that you really are trying to explore. Yeah, and what do you do with those feelings? And what do you do when you're A little girl. Or little boy. And you are full of love for a parent.
And suddenly they're gone? And what do you do with all that love? Where do you put it? once or twice when I've got ready for a project or I've taken on a role. And It hasn't happened.
Something's gone wrong and the production's collapsed, or so you've got this person that It's sort of ready to go and nowhere to put it. It's like at the end of a theatre run. You've got this person inside you. Every day for two hours on stage, you know, you're there and you. Trot her out, and then suddenly she's gone.
It's gone.
So you've got nowhere to put it.
So, what do you do with all that?
So, I think that those. I think you'll find that Quite a lot of actors come from Families in the armed forces. move around a lot, with a lot of absence. And we kind of recreate that absence, we recreate all those things, which is quite interesting actually. As I was researching this, it seems like you've been asked about.
growing up in the shadow of those tragedies in almost every single profile has ever been done on you. Did that get Tiresome?
Well, that's why I've done the film. It's like sort of like enough already. I want. to tell it my way. This is your way of reclaiming it.
Yes, I'm sort of reclaiming it. And it's my own fault. Do you know what happened? Should I uh t should I tell you what happened? We'll have more from our Sunday morning extended interview.
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Hiring, indeed, is all you need. I've never felt like this before. It's like you just get me. I feel like my true self with you. Does that sound crazy?
And it doesn't hurt that you're gorgeous.
Okay, that's it. I'm taking you home with me. Yeah. I mean, you can't find shoes this good just anywhere. Find a shoe for every you from brands you love like Birkenstock, Nike, Adidas, and more at your DSW store or dsw.com.
It was my first ever film with Prince. Yeah. And I just watched that. Maybe twenty-four. and I went on live television.
in France and it was the one o'clock news and it was a huge deal. Huge. And the guy was a very kind of gravelly reporter, and he had a voice like this and smoked cigarettes while he was interviewing. And he said to me, So tell me. What does your daddy think about making a film with Prince?
I thought What has that got to do with anything? Why are you asking me that idiotic question? I just was absolutely furious.
So I looked him in the eye and said, Well, I don't know, because he died when I was five, and then my stepfather died when I was eleven. He did not know what to do. It was on live television. He didn't know what to do.
Well, moving on, he was really embarrassed. And that was my sort of revenge. But ever since. that has followed me. Because it's become a kind of calling card, and as you say, in every single profile, tragic childhood.
And I wanted to reclaim that in a way of saying that, you know. Yes, terrible things happen, but life goes on and it makes you who you are. And I didn't think my childhood had been tragic at all. But when you were growing up, it sounds like there was a. Kind of a stiff upper lip attitude.
Thankfully, that doesn't happen now. But that said, growing up Roman Catholic, the idea of having a little Too much ambition wasn't really fondly thought. No, no, no, terrible, terrible. Not. Not advised, no.
also being English. you know, not advised.
So I I started off pretending that I wanted to be a teacher. Right. Was that really you knew all along that was? No, no, no, I knew all along, but I had to pretend to get so I could get into drama school and get a degree. Hmm.
Um And I pretended so badly that I got fired.
So, why did you leave for Paris at such a time? Because of that. Because I got, they told me that there was no place for me at the school and They actually told you that you should maybe Think of something else. For a career instead of acting? Think of something else.
Because why? What what did they say you didn't have? The T word. T word. No talent.
Oh. Anyway, my godfather sort of scooped me up and said, No, you've got to leave now and go and be an au pair girl in Paris for a bit, which is what I did. And I stayed for 42 years.
So I was working for a woman who was A concert pianist. This is when you were an au pair. When I was an au pair girl. And she said to me one day, what are you going to do? You can't be an au pair girl for the rest of her life.
I said, oh, I really want to be an actress. And she said, well, why aren't you going to drama school then? And I said, because I know it's impossible, it'll never work. You know, any excuse not to have a go, because I was terrified. And she encouraged me.
She was the first adult to actually encourage me. Rather than say, Oh no, that'll never work and go and get a beard instead. And she encouraged me to go along to acting classes, which I did. And then She encouraged me to go to she encouraged me to go to to to audition for this big acting school in France. Food.
I got through the first round, which was a miracle. And Then I had to go and learn how it was a very specific way of saying um verse in France.
So I had to go to another different acting class, evening class, to go and learn how to say verse. You bring up that first gig with Prince. Did you sort of know? What was coming? I had of him, I was his biggest fan.
I was doing a um I was doing a play in a field in Burgundy. about the end of the world, Marguerite Duras, all very kind of highbrowed. And we were Um Camping? in the local school. And I have a very good memory of having my Walkman, because I had one of those Walkmans, you know the ones with the big wire on the thing, which somebody brought back from Japan, because you couldn't even buy them in France then.
And I was listening. over and over and over and over again on repeat around the world in a day. Mm. Listening to the album. And then suddenly I get this telephone call.
from a friend of mine who was the casting director. And she said Do you want to go and audition for Prince? Yes. It was all too it was amazing. And I was aud auditioning totally.
I was auditioning for the role of girlfriend number one or something. You know, I had to say, Mary, you look so great tonight, or, wear that one or something, you know, one of those kind of lines. And so I go along to the audition and I do my thing and then suddenly I say there's a bit of a huddle behind the behind the camera and the casting director says, Would you like to audition for the lead? Which meant that? And then I I then it just became in more and more insane and magical and extraordinary.
As the day went on. I got a call, you know, Prince really likes your tape, he wants to meet you. It was it was just These things don't happen to people like me. It happens in books. Yeah.
Gosh.
Next thing I know, I was being well, next thing I know, I was being sort of interviewed with him at dinner. in this really fancy restaurant in the Place de Crion in in Paris. Wow. And I remember the shiny parquet floor and all the gold. And Prince was wearing a green suit.
And he had a nervous movement at one point, he went like that, and shot the bread roll right across the dining room floor. He went, And you guys stayed in touch? We did, yeah, yeah, yeah. He was really kind of loyal, a loyal person. Mm-hmm.
You know, it was my first attempt. I think I've got a bit better since then. Yeah. You said that in some ways you were kind of glad that it Didn't you? all that well because I don't know, maybe you weren't ready for sudden success like that?
Or? No, I was definitely not ready for sudden success. And I and I hadn't sort of finished doing the things that I needed to do as an actor. I think it's really unfair for I think it's a really dangerous situation to have success very early on in your career. I think I had it a really easy way.
I learnt along the way, you know, I learnt So much about Just how to do it all, you know. Yeah. And not to feel frightened every time you go on a film set. I love being on a film set now. It's just like, it feels, it's just.
Feels like the right place for me, you know.
So like you were saying though, in the nineties, I mean you go on this Kind of streak of these huge movies: Four Weddings at a Funeral, and then Mission Impossible, and then The English Patient, and Horse Whisperer. Huge movies, big stars. How did you How'd you handle that? You were ready then? I guess, or you felt like you were.
Do you know what? I had a really good bass. as my family. That really kept me Um steady. Because, you know, I would go away and then I'd come back.
and my life in France was so different. My husband was a doctor. I had two little kids at school. You know, I'd take them to school, take them back from school, go and sit in the garden with every all the other mums and chat. You know, it was very kind of just an.
Regular life. You know, I I never really feel famous. You don't. Not really. I mean I know sometimes I have to say, Oh I'm famous, I can't do that.
Or I'm famous, maybe I can ring up and say Have you got a table tonight?
So it has its advantages, but I don't really feel. Famous. You never had that. I've never been a Maybe it has a little bit, a tiny bit, a hindrance. or a you know a shackle.
Um But I can't really complain about it. Um You've also said that you're sort of fundamentally shy. Or at least you were. Was. I'm much less so now, as you can probably tell.
But I was excruciatingly shy. Really You know, really painfully, painfully, painfully shy. I don't know when it changed, to be honest. Hmm. As a shy person, You d you don't really want to express your own personality or you you want to keep yourself very in much in the background and not really be seen.
Yeah. But you've still got all these, as I was saying earlier, you've still got all this sort of stuff going on inside, so you need somewhere to put it. Um And so we're ideal people to go and be made to say other people's words and Have other people's emotions and be a kind of funnel for that. Do anything but be yourself. Do anything but be yourself.
Hmm. Um what did French cinema you think Do for you. Like, why was it so compelling?
Okay. Because I think that The French The way they make films is they tell stories about people and it's much more emotional and philosophical psychological and they give time. and space and silence For Um For the audience to sort of observe. Hmm. And I like that.
Yeah. Sounds like they're just smarter. That's what it sounds like. No, because I love I love as much as the next person, though, that sort of. you know Bang wallop type films.
I love all those. I'm so proud to be in Mission Impossible, I cannot even get over it. Still. Yeah. But In that I mean you were only it was a small role in the sense that you died pretty early on.
I think, yeah, four minutes? I didn't time it, but yeah, it's not a problem. But you made something big out of it. I well, I don't know about that, but I'm I'm in this thing. which is this enormous monster called Mission Impossible.
And You know that these kids They have no idea about The English patient. They have no idea about Gosford Park. They have no idea about forwarding stuff. But they've all seen Mission Impossible.
So it's it's quite fun. Um I mean your kids are grown now, you're newly married, how would you characterize it? A young bride with grandchildren. A young bride. I'm not quite sure how that works, but it does.
I'm having the most fun. It's it's so great. It's so g my my My my Former husband, who's very funny, said that he felt that Grandchildren are so marvellous that he had decided that having children was just a by-product. Grandchildren. It is true because you get all the trials.
I know everybody says it's such a cliche. It's such a cliche. But I just, I'm very, very happy. I'm Jane Pauley. Thank you for listening.
And for more of our extended interviews, follow and listen to Sunday Morning on the free Odyssey app. or wherever you get your podcasts. Starting your own business can be intimidating. Suddenly, you're wearing all the hats. Designer, marketer, customer support, shipping expert.
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The first season of CBS's new hit, NCIS Origins. is now streaming. NIS? The hell's that? Naval Investigative Service.
We go where the evidence takes us. We got this. 88% fresh on rotten tomatoes. You don't see folks trying to affect change, but here you are. Got a body waiting for us.
Yes. Welcome to the team. NCIS Origins Season 1, now streaming on Paramount Plus.
