Emma Thompson 'I FINALLY GET TO BE THE HERO'

THE ACTRESS JUMPED TO DO A PART THAT BREAKS THE MOULD

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When Emma Thompson was offered the chance to portray, what she calls “a normal woman who is faced with becoming a hero”, in her new film Dead of Winter, it was an offer too good to refuse.

The suspense-filled action thriller follows grieving widow Barb (Emma). En route to scatter her late husband Karl’s ashes in northern Minnesota, Barb discovers a young woman held captive by a desperate couple. With no phone service and a broken-down car, Barb must gather her wits about her and save the day.

Here, Emma, 66, tells New Idea about how the script was like nothing she’d ever read – “I was astonished,” she says – and why she had to do the film, despite knowing it would mean freezing her toosh off on set!

Do you think we should be seeing more stories like this one on screen?
I really do. I want to see stories about female heroism in this way. And Barb isn’t someone with special gifts. She wasn’t trained by the SAS years ago. She could be anyone’s mum. But as the only person in this particular landscape in this particular time, she realises she is the only one who can help. She’s heroic in the way women every day, in all walks of life, can be heroic.