A PROPER LADY

GROWING UP IN ENGLAND, I WAS RAISED AS A ROMAN CATHOLIC, AND THE WORD “AMBITION” WAS BAD, ALMOST SINFUL. TO WANT SOMETHING BETTER THAN WHAT YOU ALREADY HAD WAS NOT OKAY. AND SO, UP UNTIL I MADE THE ENGLISH PATIENT [IN 1996], I STIFLED MY AMBITION TO BE AN ACTRESS. THAT MAY SOUND CRAZY, BUT IT’S TRUE. THESE DAYS MY PRINCIPAL AMBITION IS TO GET SATISFACTION AND EXCITEMENT AND NOURISHMENT FROM WORK, AND ALSO LEAVE ENOUGH SPACE FOR A FULFILLING FAMILY LIFE.

- KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS

As a woman, I find that to be a very tricky balance, but when you do hit that stride, things fly. Everyone’s happy. Your family is happy, you’re happy, people at work are happy. It’s a nice feeling. I’m so glad that my success happened little by little and that my first film, Under the Cherry Moon [directed by Prince in 1986], was a failure. It was an enormous turkey; it was terrible. It was also completely surreal because Prince and I were absolute children—we were in our twenties. And yet, because he had this insane talent, people would treat him as an other-worldly saint or something. That was a weird thing because people got quite sycophantic around him. But the good news was, after that film, I was able to try again. I started from the bottom, worked up and practiced until I was ready to have a big role. In the current culture, you see so many people rise to stardom really quickly and then run out of steam. I was lucky to be able to get experience and make some bum films. It’s easier for me to say what I’m ashamed of, but I’m not going to do that. It’s been a mixture of luck and instinct that has allowed me to do some pretty good projects. I’ve made some films—Four Weddings and a Funeral, Gosford Park—that kind of lurk around for decades, and that’s something to be proud of. And actually, the past few years have been really interesting career-wise too, starting with The Party, which was a sort of political comedy, and then Darkest Hour, and then