Kristin Scott Thomas: Reclaiming My Painful Past

THE OSCAR-NOMINATED ENGLISH PATIENT ACTRESS MAKES HER DIRECTORIAL DEBUT WITH AN INTENSELY PERSONAL FAMILY DRAMA

- NIGEL SMITH

Kristin Scott Thomas helped define ’90s cinema with a breakout role in 1994’s Four Weddings and a Funeral, followed by 1996’s Mission: Impossible and The English Patient, which cemented her ranking in Hollywood with a best actress Oscar nomination. As often happens with fame, Scott Thomas began to be asked about her past. “I don’t know if you’ve done any homework,” says Scott Thomas, 65, “but if you read a profile on me, it will more often than not, I mean 99 percent of the time, say ‘Tragedy struck’ or whatever.” For the British actress it sadly struck twice: At 5 years old she lost her father, and when she was 12, her stepfather died—both were Royal Navy pilots who were killed in service.

After 40 years in the business, Scott Thomas says she “felt that it was time to reclaim” her story via her moving directorial debut, My Mother’s Wedding, a semi-autobiographical drama that draws from her family history to tell the tale of three sisters (Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller and Emily Beecham) who return home to the English countryside for the third wedding of their twice-widowed mother (Scott Thomas).