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Saturday, May 15, 2010

Kristin Scott Thomas

Kristin A. Scott Thomas, OBE (born 24 May 1960) is a British actress who has also acquired French nationality. She gained international recognition in the 1990s for her roles in Bitter Moon; Four Weddings and a Funeral and The English Patient.
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 nineteen, has brought up her three children in Paris, and says she considers herself more French than English. She has been a member of the Légion d'honneur since 2005.

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 Scott Thomas' father. Her father, Lieutenant Commander Simon Scott Thomas, was a pilot for the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm who died in a flying accident in 1964. She is the older 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 grand niece of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott, the ill-fated explorer who lost the race to the South Pole.
Scott Thomas' childhood home was in Nether Compton, 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 private schools, Cheltenham Ladies' College and St. Antony's Leweston School for Girls, in Sherborne, Dorset and 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.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. On his 2009 3-CD set LOtUSFLOW3R, the album MPLSoUND has a song titled "Better With Time", which Prince has said is an ode to Kristin.



Career

Scott Thomas is perhaps best-known for her central role as an unfaithful wife in The English Patient, one of the biggest screen hits of 1996. During the 1990s, she also appeared opposite Hugh Grant in Bitter Moon and the global box office success Four Weddings and a Funeral. She has also appeared on TV (in the 2003 Book Clubbin' episode of Absolutely Fabulous, she played a character called Plum Berkeley) and in the theatre.
She was awarded an OBE in the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours list, and was also awarded the Légion d'honneur by the French government in 2005.
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 thinks Scott Thomas' level of distaste for it would be. She made her long-awaited appearance as the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" on the episode broadcast on 25 February 2007. On this episode, amid excessive kowtowing from Clarkson and joking from Richard Hammond and James May because Clarkson has shown much affection for her in the past, she 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 Phillip Glenister, although still near the bottom of the leaderboard. It has also been mentioned on Top Gear that Jeremy Clarkson owns a donkey called "Kristin Scott Donkey", named after Kristin Scott Thomas.
In early 2007, she played Arkadina in a London production of Chekhov's The Seagull, for which she won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress on 9 March 2008. She reprised the role in New York in September 2008.
In 2006, she played the lead 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 2008 Scott Thomas took on the little exposed role of Mary, Anne and George's mother Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire and Ormond in The Other Boleyn Girl movie.
In 2009, she played the role of a fashion magazine creator and editor in the film Confessions of a Shopaholic.
She stars in the film adaption of Douglas Kennedy's novel The Woman in the Fifth, which is planned with an release in late 2010.
In 2011, Scott Thomas will star in the upcoming movie Bel Ami as another love interest of George Duroy (played by Robert Pattinson).


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). They had been together for 18 years.
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. Menzies was also her costar in a London production of Pirandello's As You Desire Me in 2006.
Her relationship with Menzies now over, she lives in Paris with her two younger children, and counts Charlotte Rampling, Gérard Depardieu, Jane Birkin, and her English Patient costars Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes  among her closest friends.


Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1985 Charly
1986 Under the Cherry Moon Mary Sharon
1987 Djamal et Juliette
Agent trouble Julie
1988 La méridienne Marie
A Handful of Dust Brenda Last Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer
The Tenth Man Thérèse
1989 Bille en tête Clara aka Headstrong
Force majeure Katia
1990 Le bal du gouverneur Marie Forestier
1991 Aux yeux du monde L'Institutrice
Valentino! I Love You
Mio caro dottor Gräsler Sabine
1992 Bitter Moon Fiona
1994 Un été inoubliable Marie-Thérèse Von Debretsy
Four Weddings and a Funeral Fiona BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress
Nominated — Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress
Le Confessional Alfred Hitchcock's assistant
1995 Plaisir d'offrir
En mai, fais ce qu'il te plaît Martine
Les Milles Mary-Jane Cooper
Richard III Lady Anne
Angels & Insects Matty Crompton Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress
Nominated — Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress
1996 Microcosmos Narrator
The English Patient Katharine Clifton National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Mission: Impossible Sarah Davies
Somebody to Love
The Pompatus of Love Caroline
1997 Love & Confusions Sarah Amour et confusions
1998 Souvenir Ann
Sweet Revenge Imogen Staxton-Billing
The Horse Whisperer Annie MacLean
1999 Random Hearts Kay Chandler
2000 Up at the Villa Mary Panton
Play First Woman
2001 Life as a House Robin Monroe
Gosford Park Sylvia McCordle Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast
Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
Satellite Special Achievement Award - Ensemble Cast
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Nominated — Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
2003 Small Cuts Béatrice Petites coupures
2004 Arsène Lupin Joséphine, comtesse de Cagliostro
2005 Man to Man Elena Van Den Ende
Chromophobia Iona Aylesbury
Keeping Mum Gloria Goodfellow Nominated — London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actress of the Year
2006 La doublure Christine Levasseur
2007 Mauvaise pente
Tell No One Hélène Perkins
The Valet Christine Levasseur
The Walker Lynn Lockner
The Golden Compass Stelmaria (voice)
2008 I've Loved You So Long
Il y a longtemps que je t'aime Juliette Best European Actress in a Leading Role
London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actress of the Year
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated — Cesar Award for Best Actress
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated — Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actress
Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress
The Other Boleyn Girl Lady Elizabeth Boleyn
Seuls two L'antiquaire
Easy Virtue Mrs. Whittaker Nominated — British Independent Film Awards for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated — London Film Critics Circle Award for British Supporting Actress of the Year
Largo Winch Ann Fergusson
2009 Confessions of a Shopaholic Alette Naylor
Partir Suzanne Nominated — Cesar Award for Best Actress
2010 Nowhere Boy Mimi Smith Nominated — British Independent Film Awards for Best Supporting Actress
Nominated — London Film Critics Circle Award for British Supporting Actress of the Year
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
2011 Bel Ami Unknown Filming


Theater
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
A Little Night Music (Planned February 2010, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris)... Désirée


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)
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