Emma Thompson

{{Short description|British actress and screenwriter (born 1959)}}

{{Infobox person

| honorific_prefix = Dame

| name = Emma Thompson

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|DBE}}

| image = Emma Thompson 2022.jpg

| caption = Thompson in 2022

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1959|04|15}}

| birth_place = London, England

| alma_mater = Newnham College, Cambridge (BA)

| occupation = {{hlist|Actress|screenwriter}}

| years_active = 1982–present

| spouse = {{ubl|{{marriage|Kenneth Branagh|1989|1995|end=divorced}}|{{marriage|Greg Wise|2003}}}}

| children = 2

| parents = {{ubl|Phyllida Law|Eric Thompson}}

| relations = Sophie Thompson (sister){{cite news|url=https://www.ok.co.uk/tv/love-actually-fans-gobsmacked-discover-34271637|title=Love Actually fans gobsmacked as they discover Emma Thompson's famous soap star sister|last1=Crutchley|first1=Joe|last2=Graves|first2=Alison|date=8 December 2024|work=OK!|accessdate=9 December 2024}}

| works = Full list

| awards = Full list

| module = {{Listen

| embed = yes

| filename = Emma_Thompson_BBC_Radio4_The_Film_Programme_28_Nov_13_b03jfc47.flac

| title = Emma Thompson's voice

| type = speech

| description = from the BBC programme The Film Programme, 28 November 2013.{{Cite episode |title=Emma Thompson |series=The Film Programme |series-link=The Film Programme (BBC Radio 4) |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03jfc47 |station=BBC Radio 4 |date=28 November 2013 |access-date=18 January 2014 |archive-date=1 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131201054513/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03jfc47 |url-status=live }}}}

}}

Dame Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is a British actress and screenwriter. Her work spans over four decades of screen and stage, and her accolades include two Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2018, she was made a dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to drama.

Born to actors Eric Thompson and Phyllida Law, Thompson was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she became a member of the Footlights troupe, and appeared in the comedy sketch series Alfresco (1983–1984). In 1985, she starred in the West End revival of the musical Me and My Girl, which was a breakthrough in her career. In 1987, she came to prominence for her performances in two BBC series, Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War, winning the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for her work on both series. In the early 1990s, she often collaborated with then-husband, actor and director Kenneth Branagh, in films such as Henry V (1989), Dead Again (1991), and Much Ado About Nothing (1993).

For her performance in the Merchant-Ivory period drama Howards End (1992), Thompson won the BAFTA Award and the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1993, she received two Academy Award nominations—Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress—for the respective roles of the housekeeper of a grand household in The Remains of the Day and a lawyer in In the Name of the Father, becoming one of the few actors to achieve this feat. Thompson wrote and starred in Sense and Sensibility (1995), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay—making her the only person in history to win Oscars for both acting and writing—and once again won the BAFTA. Further critical acclaim came for her roles in Primary Colors (1998), Love Actually (2003), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Late Night (2019), and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022).

Other notable film credits include the Harry Potter series (2004–2011), Nanny McPhee (2005), Stranger than Fiction (2006), An Education (2009), Men in Black 3 (2012) and the spin-off Men in Black: International (2019), Brave (2012), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Cruella (2021), and Matilda the Musical (2022). Her television credits include Wit (2001), Angels in America (2003), The Song of Lunch (2010), King Lear (2018) and Years and Years (2019). She portrayed Mrs. Lovett in a Lincoln Center production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in 2014. Authorised by the publishers of Beatrix Potter, Thompson has also written three Peter Rabbit children's books.

Early life and education

Thompson was born in London on 15 April 1959.{{cite book |last1=Jepson |first1=Tim |last2=Porges |first2=Larry |title=National Geographic London Book of Lists: The City's Best, Worst, Oldest, Greatest, and Quirkiest |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-z-OAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT15 |date=4 November 2014 |publisher=National Geographic Society |isbn=978-1-4262-1385-4 |page=15}}{{cite news |title=Emma Thompson |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/70692/Emma-Thompson/biography |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016063025/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/70692/Emma-Thompson/biography |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 October 2013 |author=Rebecca Flint Marx |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |date=2013 |access-date=12 October 2013}} Her mother is Scottish actress Phyllida Law, while her English father, Eric Thompson, was an actor best known as the writer of the popular children's television series The Magic Roundabout.{{cite news |last=Grice |first=Elizabeth |title=Phyllida Law: my mother's dementia had its funny side |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/9884892/Phyllida-Law-my-mothers-dementia-had-its-funny-side.html |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=23 February 2013 |access-date=14 September 2013 |archive-date=13 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181113025734/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/9884892/Phyllida-Law-my-mothers-dementia-had-its-funny-side.html |url-status=live }}{{cite news |first=Joanna |last=Moorhead |title=Emma Thompson: 'Family is about connection' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/mar/20/emma-thompson-nanny-mcphee-2 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=20 March 2010 |access-date=14 September 2013 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111221245/http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/mar/20/emma-thompson-nanny-mcphee-2 |url-status=live }} Her godfather was the director and writer Ronald Eyre.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3646596/Beneath-the-skin.html |title=Beneath the skin |work=The Telegraph |date=19 September 2005 |access-date=5 March 2014 |first=Emma |last=Thompson |archive-date=29 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140629155241/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3646596/Beneath-the-skin.html |url-status=live }} She has a younger sister, Sophie, who is also an actress. The family lived in the West Hampstead district of London, and Thompson was educated at Camden School for Girls. She spent much time in Scotland during her childhood and often visited Ardentinny, where her grandparents and uncle lived.

File:ADC Theatre Cambridge.jpg, University of Cambridge, where Thompson began performing with Footlights]]

In her youth, Thompson was intrigued by language and literature, a trait she attributes to her father, who shared her love of words.{{cite news |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-72845220.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611100659/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-72845220.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 June 2014 |title=Emma Thompson Displays Sense And Sensibility. (Timeout) |newspaper=The Cincinnati Post |date=18 January 1996 |access-date=27 March 2014}} After successfully taking A levels in English, French and Latin,{{sfn|Nickson|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/emmamanyfacetsof0000nick/page/13 13]}} and securing a scholarship,{{sfn|Nickson|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/emmamanyfacetsof0000nick/page/201 201]}} she began studying for an English degree at Newnham College, Cambridge, arriving in 1977. Thompson believes that it was inevitable she would become an actor, remarking that she was "surrounded by creative people and I don't think it would ever have gone any other way, really". While there, she had a "seminal moment" that turned her to feminism and inspired her to take up performing. She explained in a 2007 interview how she discovered the book The Madwoman in the Attic, "which is about Victorian female writers and the disguises they took on in order to express what they wanted to express. That completely changed my life."{{cite news |first=Logan |last=Hill |title=Influences: Emma Thompson |url=https://nymag.com/movies/profiles/23775/ |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=25 October 2007 |access-date=14 September 2013 |archive-date=25 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131025075730/http://nymag.com/movies/profiles/23775/ |url-status=live }} She became a self-professed "punk rocker",{{cite web |url=http://www.saga.co.uk/lifestyle/people/celebrities/brideshead-revisited-emma-thompson.aspx |title=Brideshead Revisited — an interview with Emma Thompson |last=Davey |first=Neil |website=Saga.co.uk |access-date=15 September 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130915134935/http://www.saga.co.uk/lifestyle/people/celebrities/brideshead-revisited-emma-thompson.aspx |archive-date=15 September 2013 }} with short red hair and a motorbike, and aspired to be a comedian like Lily Tomlin.

At Cambridge, Thompson was invited into the Cambridge Footlights, the university's prestigious sketch comedy troupe, by its president, Martin Bergman,{{cite news |first=Logan |last=Hill |title=The Cambridge Footlights: First steps in comedy |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/the-cambridge-footlights-first-steps-in-comedy-1517691.html |newspaper=The Independent |date=28 January 2009 |access-date=15 September 2013 |archive-date=7 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107180952/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/the-cambridge-footlights-first-steps-in-comedy-1517691.html |url-status=live }} becoming its first female member.{{cite book |editor-last=Bulman |editor-first=James C. |title=Shakespeare Re-dressed: Cross-gender Casting in Contemporary Performance |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=joOqyvocRE0C&pg=PA152 |date=January 2008 |publisher=Associated University Presses |isbn=978-0-8386-4114-9 |page=152 |access-date=27 February 2016 |archive-date=3 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703065220/http://books.google.com/books?id=joOqyvocRE0C&pg=PA152 |url-status=live }} Also in the troupe were fellow actors Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, and she had a romantic relationship with the latter.{{cite news |last=Walker |first=Tim |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/4224331/Hugh-Lauries-elemental-about-Emma-Thompson.html |title=Hugh Laurie's elemental about Emma Thompson |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=12 January 2009 |access-date=3 May 2011 |archive-date=9 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100609143401/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/4224331/Hugh-Lauries-elemental-about-Emma-Thompson.html |url-status=live }} Fry recalled that "there was no doubt that Emma was going the distance. Our nickname for her was Emma Talented."

In 1980, Thompson served as the Vice President of Footlights,{{cite web |title=1980–1989 {{!}} Cambridge Footlights |url=http://www.footlights.org/alumni-archive?name=1980-1989 |website=Footlights.org |access-date=15 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130909142743/http://footlights.org/alumni-archive?name=1980-1989 |archive-date=9 September 2013 }} and co-directed the troupe's first all-female revue, Woman's Hour. The following year, she and her Footlights team won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for their sketch show The Cellar Tapes.{{cite web |title=History {{!}} Cambridge Footlights |url=http://footlights.org/history |website=Footlights.org |access-date=15 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130922122310/http://footlights.org/history |archive-date=22 September 2013 }} She graduated with upper second-class honours.{{sfn|Nickson|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/emmamanyfacetsof0000nick/page/35 35]}} In the early 80's, Thompson studied clowning under Philippe Gaulier at École Philippe Gaulier.{{cite web |last1=Lahr |first1=John |title=Emma Thompson's Third Act |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/11/14/emma-thompsons-third-act |website=www.newyorker.com |publisher=The New Yorker |access-date=3 June 2025}} {{cite web |last1=Logan |first1=Brian |title=Inside Philippe Gaulier's Clown School |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/aug/02/philippe-gaulier-clown-school-emma-thompson-sacha-baron-cohen-edinburgh-festival-interview |website=www.theguardian.com |publisher=The Guardian |access-date=3 June 2025}} {{cite web |last1=Zinoman |first1=Jason |title=The Dumbledore of Clowning |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/arts/television/philippe-gaulier-clowns.html |website=www.nytimes.com |publisher=The New York Times |access-date=3 June 2025}}

Thompson's father died in 1982, aged 52. She has stated that this "tore [the family] to pieces",{{cite news |first=Vanessa |last=Thorpe |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/mar/28/emma-thompson-kenneth-branagh |title=Emma Thompson tells of her battle with 'voices in my head' |newspaper=The Observer |date=28 March 2010 |access-date=15 September 2013 |archive-date=23 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140323233702/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/mar/28/emma-thompson-kenneth-branagh |url-status=live }} and "I can't begin to tell you how much I regret his not being around".{{cite news |first=Jan |last=Stuart |title=Emma Thompson, Sensibly |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-12-10-ca-12297-story.html |newspaper=New York |date=10 December 1995 |access-date=14 September 2013 |archive-date=21 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921053740/http://articles.latimes.com/1995-12-10/entertainment/ca-12297_1_emma-thompson |url-status=live }} She added, "At the same time, it's possible that were he still alive I might never have had the space or courage to do what I've done ... I have a definite feeling of inheriting space. And power."

Career

=Early work and breakthrough (1980–1989)=

During Thompson's years studying at Cambridge, she starred in a BBC Radio 4 comedy series called Injury Time.{{Cite web |last=Guide |first=British Comedy |title=Injury Time - Radio 4 Sketch Show |url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/radio/injury_time/ |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=British Comedy Guide}}{{Cite web |title=Emma Thompson: A Life in Pictures |url=http://www.bafta.org/media-centre/press-releases/emma-thompson-a-life-in-pictures |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=Bafta}} This was recorded and broadcast from 1980 to 1982

Thompson had her first professional role in 1982, touring in a stage version of Not the Nine O'Clock News. She then turned to television, where much of her early work came with her Footlights co-stars Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. The regional ITV comedy series There's Nothing to Worry About! (1982) was their first outing, followed by the one-off BBC show The Crystal Cube (1983).{{cite web |title=Emma Thompson |url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2ba1c2f296 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120713003219/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2ba1c2f296 |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 July 2012 |work=British Film Institute |access-date=29 October 2013}} There's Nothing to Worry About! later returned as the networked sketch show Alfresco (1983–84), which ran for two series with Thompson, Fry, Laurie, Ben Elton, and Robbie Coltrane. She later collaborated again with Fry and Laurie on the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 series Saturday Night Fry (1988).

File:KennethBranaghApr2011.jpg (pictured in 2011).]]

In 1985, Thompson was cast in the West End revival of the musical Me and My Girl, co-starring Robert Lindsay. It provided a breakthrough in her career, as the production earned rave reviews.{{cite web |title=Emma Thompson – Biography |url=http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/person/emma-thompson/biography.html |website=Yahoo! Movies |access-date=12 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019044406/http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/person/emma-thompson/biography.html |archive-date=19 October 2013 }} She played the role of Sally Smith for 15 months, which exhausted her: she later remarked "I thought if I did the fucking "Lambeth Walk" one more time I was going to fucking throw up." At the end of 1985, she wrote and starred in her own one-off special for Channel 4, Emma Thompson: Up for Grabs.{{cite web |title=Emma Thompson: Up for Grabs |url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b711944b6 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120909192541/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b711944b6 |url-status=dead |archive-date=9 September 2012 |work=British Film Institute |access-date=29 October 2013}}

Thompson achieved another breakthrough in 1987, when she had leading roles in two television miniseries: Fortunes of War, a World War II drama costarring Kenneth Branagh, and Tutti Frutti, a dark comedy about a Scottish rock band with Robbie Coltrane. For these performances, Thompson won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.{{cite web |title=Television Actress in 1988 |url=http://awards.bafta.org/award/1988/television/actress |website=Bafta.org |access-date=12 October 2013 |archive-date=21 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721001841/http://awards.bafta.org/award/1988/television/actress |url-status=live }} The following year, she wrote and starred in her own sketch comedy series for BBC, Thompson, but this was poorly received.{{cite web |last=Lee |first=Alana |title=Emma Thompson interview |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/11/13/emma_thompson_love_actually_interview.shtml |website=BBC Online |date=28 October 2014 |access-date=12 October 2013 |archive-date=2 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602081409/http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/11/13/emma_thompson_love_actually_interview.shtml |url-status=live }} In 1989, she and Branagh—with whom she had formed a romantic relationship—starred in a stage revival of Look Back in Anger, directed by Judi Dench and produced by Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company.{{cite web |title=Renaissance Theatre Company Collection |url=http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb2188-dsh02 |website=ArchivesHub.ac.uk |access-date=16 October 2013 |archive-date=17 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017053351/http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb2188-dsh02 |url-status=live }} Later that year, the pair starred in a televised version of the play.

Thompson's first cinema appearance came in the romantic comedy The Tall Guy (1989), the feature-film debut from screenwriter Richard Curtis. It starred Jeff Goldblum as a West End actor, and Thompson played the nurse with whom he falls in love. The film was not widely seen,{{cite news |first=Mark |last=Lawson |title=It's Magic |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/nov/13/britishidentity |newspaper=The Guardian |date=13 November 2003 |access-date=13 October 2013 |archive-date=12 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140912141734/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/nov/13/britishidentity |url-status=live }} but Thompson's performance was praised in The New York Times, where Caryn James called her "an exceptionally versatile comic actress".{{cite news |first=Caryn |last=James |title=The Tall Guy (1989) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0CE2DD1E31F932A1575AC0A966958260 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=21 September 1990 |access-date=13 October 2013 |archive-date=6 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306134117/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0CE2DD1E31F932A1575AC0A966958260 |url-status=live }} She next turned to Shakespeare, appearing as Princess Katherine in Branagh's screen adaptation of Henry V (1989). The film was released to great critical acclaim.{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1029042-henry_v/ |title=Henry V (1989) |access-date=16 October 2013 |website=Rotten Tomatoes |archive-date=22 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120822173002/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1029042-henry_v/ |url-status=live }}

=''Howards End'' and worldwide recognition (1990–1993)=

Thompson and Branagh are considered by American writer and critic James Monaco to have led the "British cinematic onslaught" in the 1990s.{{cite book |last=Monaco |first=James |title=How to Read a Film:Movies, Media, and Beyond: Movies, Media, and Beyond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bgbOsjnppAcC&pg=PA414 |date=8 May 2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-975579-0 |page=414 |access-date=27 February 2016 |archive-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200223084522/https://books.google.com/books?id=bgbOsjnppAcC&pg=PA414 |url-status=live }} She continued to experiment with Shakespeare in the new decade, appearing with Branagh in his stage productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and King Lear. Reviewing the latter, the Chicago Tribune praised her "extraordinary" performance of the "hobbling, stooped hunchback Fool".{{cite news |first=Richard |last=Christiansen |title=An Impressive King Lear Outshines A Flawed, Hilarious 'dream' |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1990/05/25/an-impressive-king-lear-outshines-a-flawed-hilarious-dream/ |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=25 May 1990 |access-date=16 October 2013 |archive-date=17 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017023857/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1990-05-25/news/9002130021_1_king-lear-pyramus-and-thisbe-actors |url-status=live }} Thompson returned to cinema in 1991, playing a "frivolous aristocrat" in Impromptu with Judy Davis and Hugh Grant.{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/impromptu |title=Impromptu |access-date=28 October 2013 |website=Rotten Tomatoes |archive-date=25 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225230551/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/impromptu/ |url-status=live }} She was nominated for Best Supporting Female at the Independent Spirit Awards.{{cite news |title=Emma Thompson – Awards |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/70692/Emma-Thompson/awards |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413183605/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/70692/Emma-Thompson/awards |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 April 2014 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |date=2014 |access-date=28 October 2013}} Her second release of 1991 was another pairing with Branagh, who also directed, in the Los Angeles-based noir Dead Again. She played a woman who has forgotten her identity.{{cite web |title=Dead Again (Weekend) |url=https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=deadagain.htm |website=Box Office Mojo |access-date=16 October 2013 |archive-date=17 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017024857/http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=deadagain.htm |url-status=live }} Early in 1992, Thompson had a guest role in an episode of Cheers as Frasier Crane's first wife.{{cite web |title=Cheers, Season 10, Episode 16: One Hugs, the Other Doesn't |url=http://www.tv.com/shows/cheers/one-hugs-the-other-doesnt-14309/ |website=TV.com |access-date=16 October 2013 |archive-date=22 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022102011/http://www.tv.com/shows/cheers/one-hugs-the-other-doesnt-14309/ |url-status=live }}

File:AnthonyHopkins2.jpg (pictured in 1992) starred with Thompson in Howards End (1992) and The Remains of the Day (1993).]]

A turning point in Thompson's career came when she was cast opposite Anthony Hopkins and Vanessa Redgrave in the Merchant Ivory period drama Howards End (1992), based on the novel by E. M. Forster. The film explored the social class system in Edwardian Britain, with Thompson playing an idealistic, intellectual, forward-looking woman who comes into association with a privileged and deeply conservative family. She actively pursued the role by writing to director James Ivory, who agreed to an audition and then gave her the part. According to the critic Vincent Canby, the film allowed Thompson to "[come] into her own", away from Branagh.{{cite news |title=Howards End (1992) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E0CE0DD1738F930A25750C0A964958260 |first=Vincent |last=Canby |newspaper=The New York Times |date=13 March 1992 |access-date=24 October 2013 |archive-date=13 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113110737/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E0CE0DD1738F930A25750C0A964958260 |url-status=live }} Upon release, Roger Ebert wrote that she was "superb in the central role: quiet, ironic, observant, with steel inside".{{cite news |title=Howards End |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/howards-end-1992 |first=Roger |last=Ebert |newspaper=Chicago Sun-Times |date=1 May 1992 |access-date=24 October 2013 |archive-date=29 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029201109/http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/howards-end-1992 |url-status=live }} Howards End was widely praised,{{cite web |title=Howards End |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Howards_End/ |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=24 October 2013}} a "surprise hit",{{cite news |title=Simply Put, It's Chemistry: Two actors, two Oscars, two tart tongues—Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins do the Tracy and Hepburn thing |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-31-ca-51533-story.html |last=De Vries |first=Hilary |newspaper=The New York Times |date=31 October 1993 |access-date=24 October 2013 |archive-date=29 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029221032/http://articles.latimes.com/1993-10-31/entertainment/ca-51533_1_emma-thompson-and-anthony-hopkins |url-status=live }} and received nine Academy Award nominations.{{cite news |title=Howards End (1992) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/23747/Howards-End/overview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304081101/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/23747/Howards-End/overview |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 March 2014 |access-date=24 October 2013 |first=Vincent |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |author-link=Vincent Canby |date=2014 |last=Canby}} Among its three wins was the Best Actress trophy for Thompson, who was also awarded a Golden Globe and BAFTA for her performance. Reflecting on the role, The New York Times wrote that the actress "found herself an international success almost overnight".

For her next two films, Thompson returned to working with Branagh. In Peter's Friends (1992), the pair starred with Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Imelda Staunton, and Tony Slattery as a group of Cambridge alumni who are reunited ten years after graduating. The comedy was positively reviewed,{{cite web |title=Peter's Friends |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/peters_friends/ |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=28 October 2013 |archive-date=15 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215203428/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/peters_friends/ |url-status=live }} and Desson Howe of The Washington Post wrote that Thompson was its highlight: "Even as a rather one-dimensional character, she exudes grace and an adroit sense of comic tragedy."{{cite news |title=Peter's Friends |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/petersfriendsrhowe_a0af5b.htm |first=Desson |last=Howe |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=25 December 1992 |access-date=28 October 2013 |archive-date=16 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016220056/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/petersfriendsrhowe_a0af5b.htm |url-status=live }} She followed this with Branagh's screen version of Much Ado About Nothing (1993). The couple starred as Beatrice and Benedick, alongside a cast that also included Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves, and Michael Keaton. Thompson was widely praised for the on-screen chemistry with Branagh and the natural ease with which she played the role,{{cite news |title=Much Ado About Nothing (1993) |url=https://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,306529,00.html |first=Owen |last=Gleiberman |newspaper=Entertainment Weekly |date=14 May 1993 |access-date=28 October 2013 |archive-date=29 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029201842/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,306529,00.html |url-status=dead }}{{cite book |last=Dlugos |first=J. Michael |title=Mr. Mikey's Video Views; Volume One |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3hTV8v2Ueq8C&pg=PA151 |date=1 January 2000 |publisher=Trafford Publishing |isbn=978-1-55212-316-4 |page=151 |access-date=27 February 2016 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801090016/https://books.google.com/books?id=3hTV8v2Ueq8C&pg=PA151 |url-status=live }} marking another critical success for Thompson.{{cite web |title=Much Ado About Nothing |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1045992-much_ado_about_nothing/ |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=28 October 2013 |archive-date=15 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015173416/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1045992-much_ado_about_nothing/ |url-status=live }} Her performance earned a nomination for Best Female Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards.

Thompson reunited with Merchant–Ivory and Anthony Hopkins to film The Remains of the Day (1993), a film which has been described as a "classic" and the production team's definitive film.{{cite web |title=The Remains of the Day |url=http://www.film4.com/reviews/1993/the-remains-of-the-day |website=Film4.com |access-date=19 January 2014 |archive-date=3 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203053516/http://www.film4.com/reviews/1993/the-remains-of-the-day |url-status=live }} Based on Kazuo Ishiguro's novel about a housekeeper and butler in interwar Britain, the story is acclaimed for its study of loneliness and repression, though Thompson was particularly interested in looking at "the deformity that servitude inflicts upon people", since her grandmother had worked as a servant and made many sacrifices.{{cite web|title=Emma Thompson: A Life in Pictures [interview] |date=24 November 2013 |url=https://static.bafta.org/files/emma-thompson-a-life-in-pictures-transcript-195-piccadilly-24-november-2013-2101.pdf |last=Hilton |first=Boyd |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305074533/https://static.bafta.org/files/emma-thompson-a-life-in-pictures-transcript-195-piccadilly-24-november-2013-2101.pdf |archive-date=5 March 2016 |location=Piccadilly, London |work=BAFTA}} She has named the film as one of the greatest experiences of her career, considering it to be a "masterpiece of withheld emotion".{{cite news |title=Andrew Marr interview with Emma Thompson |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/andrew_marr_show/8591475.stm |website=BBC News |date=28 March 2010 |access-date=19 January 2014 |url-status=live |archive-date=9 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220209073210/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/andrew_marr_show/8591475.stm}} The Remains of the Day was a critical and commercial success,{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/remains_of_the_day/ |title=The Remains of the Day |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=19 January 2014 |archive-date=25 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325144138/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/remains_of_the_day/ |url-status=live }} receiving eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and a second Best Actress nomination for Thompson.{{cite news|last=Fox |first=David J. |title=Oscar's Favorite 'List' : The Nominations : 'Schindler's' Sweeps Up With 12 Nods : 'The Piano' and 'The Remains of the Day' both receive eight nominations; 'Fugitive,' 'In the Name of the Father' earn seven |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-02-10-ca-21449-story.html |access-date=10 March 2019 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=10 February 1994 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203080052/http://articles.latimes.com/1994-02-10/entertainment/ca-21449_1_oscar-nominations |archive-date=3 December 2013 }}

Along with her Best Actress nomination at the 66th Academy Awards, Thompson was also nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category, making her the eighth performer in history to be nominated for two Oscars in the same year.{{cite web |title=Two in One Acting |url=http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/help/statistics/actingtwoinone.html |website=awardsdatabase.oscars.org |publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |access-date=14 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090310184100/http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/help/statistics/actingtwoinone.html |archive-date=10 March 2009}} It came for her role as the lawyer Gareth Peirce in In the Name of the Father (1993), a drama about the Guildford Four starring Daniel Day-Lewis. The film was her second hit of the year, earning $65{{nbsp}}million and critical praise, and was nominated for Best Picture along with The Remains of the Day.{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_the_name_of_the_father/ |title=In the Name of the Father |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=19 January 2014 |archive-date=17 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140117004551/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_the_name_of_the_father/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=In the Name of the Father |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=inthenameofthefather.htm |website=Box Office Mojo |access-date=19 January 2014 |archive-date=1 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201120510/http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=inthenameofthefather.htm |url-status=live }}

=''Sense and Sensibility'' and established actress (1994–1999)=

In 1994, Thompson made her Hollywood debut playing a goofy doctor alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in Junior. Although the male pregnancy storyline was poorly received by most critics and flopped at the box office,{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1058426-junior |title=Junior |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=21 January 2014 |archive-date=28 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140128091728/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1058426-junior/ |url-status=live }} Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle praised the lead trio.{{cite news |last1=La Salle |first1=Mick |title=FILM REVIEW – Schwarzenegger Gets Sensitive in 'Junior' |url=http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/FILM-REVIEW-Schwarzenegger-Gets-Sensitive-in-3030769.php |access-date=28 November 2015 |work=The San Francisco Chronicle |date=9 June 1995 |archive-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208112257/http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/FILM-REVIEW-Schwarzenegger-Gets-Sensitive-in-3030769.php |url-status=live }} She returned to independent cinema for a lead role in Carrington, which studied the platonic relationship between artist Dora Carrington and writer Lytton Strachey (played by Jonathan Pryce). Roger Ebert remarked that Thompson had "developed a specialty in unrequited love",{{cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |title=Carrington |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/carrington-1995 |newspaper=Chicago Sun-Times |access-date=19 January 2014 |date=17 November 1995 |archive-date=3 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203113231/http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/carrington-1995 |url-status=live }} and the TV Guide Film & Video Companion commented that her "neurasthenic mannerisms, which usually drive us batty, are appropriate here".{{cite book |title=TV Guide Film & Video Companion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gNEdYxQM_hkC |year=2004 |publisher=Barnes & Noble Books |isbn=978-0-7607-6104-5 |page=146}}

File:Bridleway by Efford House, 1996-geograph-3391607.jpg (1995)]]

Thompson's Academy success continued with Sense and Sensibility (1995), generally considered to be the most popular and authentic of the numerous film adaptations of Jane Austen's novels made in the 1990s.{{cite book |last=Galperin |first=William H. |title=The Historical Austen |url=https://archive.org/details/historicalausten0000galp |url-access=registration |year=2003 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=0-8122-3687-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historicalausten0000galp/page/109 109]}}{{cite book |last=Flavin |first=Louise |title=Jane Austen in the Classroom: Viewing the Novel/reading the Film |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WokjuZOeXSwC&pg=PA42 |date=1 January 2004 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=978-0-8204-6811-2 |page=42 |access-date=27 February 2016 |archive-date=3 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703072042/http://books.google.com/books?id=WokjuZOeXSwC&pg=PA42 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Wendy S. |title=Consensual Fictions: Women, Liberalism, and the English Novel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O-EVGVxHrgkC&pg=PA101 |year=2005 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-8717-1 |page=101 |access-date=27 February 2016 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801111456/https://books.google.com/books?id=O-EVGVxHrgkC&pg=PA101 |url-status=live }} Thompson—a lifelong lover of Austen's work—was hired to write the film based on the period sketches in her series Thompson.{{cite news |url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/1995/12/17/jane-austen-does-lunch.html |first=Jack |last=Kroll |title=Jane Austen does lunch |newspaper=The Daily Beast |date=17 December 1995 |access-date=30 January 2014 |archive-date=16 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816105111/http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/1995/12/17/jane-austen-does-lunch.html |url-status=live }} She spent five years developing the screenplay,{{cite book |first=Emma |last=Thompson |title=Sense and Sensibility: The Screenplay and Diaries |chapter=The Diaries |publisher=Bloomsbury |editor1-first=Lindsay |editor1-last=Doran |editor2-first=Emma |editor2-last=Thompson |year=1995 |isbn=1-55704-782-0 |page=208}} and took the role of the spinster sister Elinor Dashwood despite, aged 35, being 16 years older than the literary character.{{cite web |url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/62625 |title=Sense and Sensibility |work=Turner Classic Movies |first=Frank |last=Miller |access-date=30 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130701174531/http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/62625%7C0/Sense-and-Sensibility.html |archive-date=1 July 2013 |url-status=live |df=dmy}} Directed by Ang Lee and co-starring Kate Winslet, Sense and Sensibility received widespread critical acclaim and ranks among the highest-grossing films of Thompson's career.{{cite web |title=Sense and Sensibility |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1068832-sense_and_sensibility/ |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=30 January 2014 |archive-date=20 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220054313/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1068832-sense_and_sensibility/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Emma Thompson |url=https://boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?view=Actor&id=emmathompson.htm&sort=gross&order=DESC&p=.htm |website=Box Office Mojo |access-date=30 January 2014 |archive-date=1 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201194507/http://boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?view=Actor&id=emmathompson.htm&sort=gross&order=DESC&p=.htm |url-status=live }} Shelly Frome remarked that she displayed a "great affinity for Jane Austen's style and wit",{{cite book |last=Frome |first=Shelly |title=The Art and Craft of Screenwriting: Fundamentals, Methods and Advice from Insiders |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=587lUbco-WoC&pg=PA105 |date=27 January 2009 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-8267-2 |page=105 |access-date=27 February 2016 |archive-date=3 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703065254/http://books.google.com/books?id=587lUbco-WoC&pg=PA105 |url-status=live }} and Graham Fuller of Sight and Sound saw her as the film's auteur.{{cite book |last=Shih |first=Shu-mei |title=Visuality and Identity: Sinophone Articulations Across the Pacific |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HoZX3XSgm-0C&pg=PA58 |date=19 June 2007 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-94015-4 |access-date=27 February 2016 |archive-date=3 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703070713/http://books.google.com/books?id=HoZX3XSgm-0C&pg=PA58 |url-status=live }} Thompson received a third nomination for Best Actress and won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay, making her the only person in history to win an Oscar for both acting and screenwriting.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/emma-thompson-how-jane-austen-saved-me-from-going-under-1929510.html |title=Emma Thompson: How Jane Austen saved me from going under |newspaper=The Independent |first=Andrew |last=Johnson |date=28 March 2010 |access-date=18 August 2011 |archive-date=26 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120126120637/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/emma-thompson-how-jane-austen-saved-me-from-going-under-1929510.html |url-status=live }} She also earned a second BAFTA Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay.

Thompson was absent from screens in 1996, but returned the following year with Alan Rickman's directorial debut, The Winter Guest. Set over one day in a Scottish seaside village, the drama allowed Thompson and her mother (Phyllida Law) to play mother and daughter on screen.{{cite news |title=The Winter Guest |work=Chicago Sun-Times |first=Roger |last=Ebert |date=16 January 1998 |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-winter-guest-1998 |access-date=1 February 2014 |archive-date=4 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140204025245/http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-winter-guest-1998 |url-status=live }} She then returned to America to appear in an episode of Ellen, and her self-parodying performance received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.{{cite web|url=https://www.emmys.com/bios/emma-thompson |title=Emma Thompson – Emmy Awards, Nominations and Wins |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200424194836/https://www.emmys.com/bios/emma-thompson |archive-date=24 April 2020 |website=Emmy Awards |access-date=31 January 2014}}

For her second Hollywood role, Thompson starred with John Travolta in Mike Nichols's Primary Colors (1998), playing a couple based on Bill and Hillary Clinton.{{cite news |title=Primary Colors |work=Chicago Sun-Times |first=Roger |last=Ebert |date=20 March 1998 |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19980320/REVIEWS/803200304 |access-date=31 January 2014 |archive-date=11 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011182124/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19980320%2FREVIEWS%2F803200304 |url-status=live }} Thompson's character, Susan, is described as that of an "ambitious, long-suffering wife" who has to deal with her husband's infidelity.{{cite web |first=Alex |last=Tunzelmann von |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/may/29/primary-colors-bill-clinton-film-accuracy |title=Primary Colors: fiction takes second place to fact |work=The Guardian |date=29 May 2013 |access-date=27 March 2014 |archive-date=27 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327234440/http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/may/29/primary-colors-bill-clinton-film-accuracy |url-status=live }} The film was critically well received but lost money at the box office.{{cite web |title=Primary Colors |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/primary_colors/ |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=31 January 2014 |archive-date=4 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140204052719/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/primary_colors/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=primarycolors.htm |title=Primary Colors |website=Box Office Mojo |access-date=31 January 2014 |archive-date=31 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140131162036/http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=primarycolors.htm |url-status=live }} According to Kevin O'Sullivan of the Daily Mirror, Americans were "blown away" by her performance and accent, and top Hollywood producers became increasingly interested in casting her.{{cite news |last=O'Sullivan |first=Kevin |url= |title=Film: First Lady Steps Down for A Year; Emma Thompson Is in Demand Following Her 'Hillary Clinton' Role in Primary Colors, but She's Taking a Year off Instead |newspaper=Daily Mirror |date=30 October 1998 |access-date= }} Thompson rejected many of the offers, expressing concerns about living in Los Angeles behind walls with bodyguards, and stated "LA is lovely as long as you know you can leave". She also admitted to feeling tired and jaded with the industry at this point, which influenced her decision to leave film for a year.{{cite news |first=Julie L. |last=Belcove |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-72510059.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611091212/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-72510059.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 June 2014 |title=TRUE WIT (interview with actress Emma Thompson) |newspaper=WWD |date=16 March 2001 |access-date=27 March 2014}} Thompson followed Primary Colors by playing an FBI agent opposite Rickman in the poorly received thriller Judas Kiss (1998).{{cite web |title=Judas Kiss |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/judas_kiss/reviews/ |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=1 February 2014 |archive-date=19 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219192959/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/judas_kiss/reviews/ |url-status=live }}

=Continued screen work and further acclaim (2000–2011)=

File:EmmaThompson05 (cropped).jpg in 2005]]

When she became a mother in 1999, Thompson made a conscious decision to reduce her workload, and in the following years many of her appearances were supporting roles.{{cite news|first=Jeff |last=Simon |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1827973.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140313185754/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1827973.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 March 2014 |title=THE IoS PROFILE: Emma Thompson |newspaper=The Independent on Sunday |date=8 February 2004 |access-date=13 March 2014}} She was not seen on screen again until 2000, with only a small part in the British comedy Maybe Baby, which she appeared in as a favour to its director, her friend Ben Elton.{{cite web |title=Ben Elton live on our talkboards |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/may/30/2 |access-date=1 February 2014 |work=The Guardian |date=30 May 2000 |archive-date=1 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180201075433/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/may/30/2 |url-status=live }}

For the HBO television film Wit (2001), however, Thompson happily took the lead role in what she felt was "one of the best scripts to have come out of America".{{cite web |last=Kirwan |first=Sian |title=Emma Thompson interview: "Wit" - Edinburgh International Film Festival 2001 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/08/30/emma_thompson_wit_2001_interview.shtml |website=BBC Online |access-date=2 February 2014 |date=24 September 2014 |orig-date=August 2001 |archive-date=11 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111154236/http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/08/30/emma_thompson_wit_2001_interview.shtml |url-status=live }} Adapted from Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize winning play, it focuses on a self-sufficient Harvard University professor who finds her values challenged when she is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Thompson was instrumental in bringing Mike Nichols to direct the project, and the pair spent months in rehearsal to get the complex character right.{{cite web |last=Belcove, Julie L. |title=True Wit |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-72510059.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611091212/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-72510059.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 June 2014 |work=WWD |access-date=13 March 2014|date=16 March 2001}} She was greatly drawn to the "daredevil" role,{{cite book |last=Klaus |first=Carl H. |title=Letters to Kate: Life After Life |url=https://archive.org/details/letterstokatelif00klau |url-access=registration |date=1 April 2006 |publisher=University of Iowa Press |isbn=978-1-58729-669-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/letterstokatelif00klau/page/110 110]}} for which she had no qualms about shaving her head.{{cite news |last=Lyall |first=Sarah |title=For 'Wit,' Emma Thompson Supplies a Wit of Her Own |url=http://faculty.smu.edu/tmayo/wit_hbo_1.htm |access-date=2 February 2014 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=18 March 2001 |archive-date=20 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620031754/http://faculty.smu.edu/tmayo/wit_hbo_1.htm |url-status=live }} Reviewing the performance, Roger Ebert was touched by "the way she struggles with every ounce of her humanity to keep her self-respect", and in 2008 he called it Thompson's finest work.{{cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |title=When a movie hurts too much |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/when-a-movie-hurts-too-much |website=RogerEbert.com |access-date=2 February 2014 |date=3 July 2008 |archive-date=19 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219093008/http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/when-a-movie-hurts-too-much |url-status=live }} Caryn James of The New York Times also described it as "one of her most brilliant performances", adding "we seem to be peering into a soul as embattled as its body."{{cite news |last=James |first=Caryn |title=TV WEEKEND; Death, Mighty Thou Art; So Too, a Compassionate Heart |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/23/movies/tv-weekend-death-mighty-thou-art-so-too-a-compassionate-heart.html |access-date=2 February 2014 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=23 March 2001 |archive-date=28 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090728080304/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/23/movies/tv-weekend-death-mighty-thou-art-so-too-a-compassionate-heart.html |url-status=live }} The film earned Thompson nominations at the Golden Globes, Emmys and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Thompson's only credit of 2002 was a voice role in Disney's Treasure Planet, an adaptation of Treasure Island, where she voiced Captain Amelia. The animation earned far less than its large budget and was considered a "box office disaster".{{cite news |title=Disney's Treasure Planet flops |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2551219.stm |work=BBC News |access-date=4 February 2014 |date=6 December 2002 |archive-date=8 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508225837/https://server-uk.imrworldwide.com/a1.js |url-status=live }} This failure was countered the following year by one of Thompson's biggest commercial successes, Richard Curtis's romantic comedy Love Actually. As part of an ensemble cast that included Liam Neeson, Keira Knightley, and Colin Firth, she played a middle-class wife who discovers her husband (played by Alan Rickman) has been unfaithful to her. The scene in which her stalwart character breaks down was described by one critic as "the best crying on screen ever", and in 2013, Thompson mentioned that she gets commended for this role more than any other.{{cite web |title=Emma Thompson: Live webchat, Wednesday 2 October, 8.15–9.15pm |url=http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_live_events/a1868169-Emma-Thompson-Live-webchat-Wednesday-2 |website=Mumsnet |access-date=4 February 2014 |archive-date=7 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407064008/http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_live_events/a1868169-Emma-Thompson-Live-webchat-Wednesday-2 |url-status=live }} She explained, "I've had so much bloody practice at crying in a bedroom then having to go out and be cheerful, gathering up the pieces of my heart and putting them in a drawer." Her performance received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress.{{cite web |title=BAFTA Awards Search: Emma Thompson |url=http://awards.bafta.org/keyword-search?keywords=Emma+Thompson |website=Bafta.com |access-date=4 February 2014 |archive-date=22 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222200623/http://awards.bafta.org/keyword-search?keywords=Emma+Thompson |url-status=live }}

Thompson continued with supporting roles in the 2003 drama Imagining Argentina, where she played a dissident-journalist abducted by the country's 1970s dictatorial regime. Antonio Banderas played the husband who tries to find her, in a film that most critics disliked.{{cite web |title=Imagining Argentina |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/imagining_argentina/ |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=13 March 2014 |archive-date=14 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314014704/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/imagining_argentina/ |url-status=live }} The film was booed and jeered at when it was screened at the Venice Film Festival and received a scathing article in The Guardian.{{cite book |last=Valck |first=Marijke de |title=Film Festivals: From European Geopolitics to Global Cinephilia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JotcRIeihQ8C&pg=PA159 |year=2007 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-5356-192-8 |page=159 |access-date=27 February 2016 |archive-date=4 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140704043242/http://books.google.com/books?id=JotcRIeihQ8C&pg=PA159 |url-status=live }} Thompson had greater success that year when she worked with HBO for a second time in the acclaimed miniseries Angels in America (2003). The show, also starring Al Pacino and Meryl Streep, deals with the AIDS epidemic in Reagan-era America. Thompson played three roles – a nurse, a homeless woman, and the title role of The Angel of America – and was again nominated for an Emmy Award. In 2004, she played the eccentric Divination teacher Sybill Trelawney in the third Harry Potter film, Prisoner of Azkaban, her character described as a "hippy chick professor who teaches fortune-telling". She later reprised the role in Order of the Phoenix (2007) and Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011), and has described her time working on the popular franchise as "great fun".

{{quote box|bgcolor=#E0E6F8|align=right|width=25em|quote="Nanny McPhee, it took nine years to make that movie, from the moment I picked up the book to the moment we walked into the movie theatre ... the [films] were labours of great love and commitment."|source=—Thompson on Nanny McPhee and its sequel, which she wrote and starred in.}}

The year 2005 saw the release of a project Thompson had been working on for nine years. Loosely based on the Nurse Matilda stories that she read as a child, Thompson wrote the screenplay for the children's film Nanny McPhee – which centres on a mysterious, unsightly nanny who must discipline a group of children. She also took the lead role, alongside Colin Firth and Angela Lansbury, in what was a highly personal project.{{cite web |last=Murray |first=Rebecca |title=Emma Thompson Talks About 'Nanny McPhee' |url=http://movies.about.com/od/nancymcphee/a/mcpheeet012106.htm |website=movies.about.com |access-date=8 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019043226/http://movies.about.com/od/nancymcphee/a/mcpheeet012106.htm |archive-date=19 October 2013 }} The film was a success, taking number one at the UK box office and earning $122{{nbsp}}million worldwide.{{cite web |title=Nanny knocks Wallace off top spot |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/nov/10/news1 |work=The Guardian |access-date=8 February 2014 |date=10 November 2005 |archive-date=23 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223010146/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/nov/10/news1 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Nanny McPhee |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=nannymcphee.htm |website=Box Office Mojo |access-date=8 February 2014 |archive-date=24 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140124033213/http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=nannymcphee.htm |url-status=live }} Commenting on Thompson's screenplay, film critic Claudia Puig wrote that its "well-worn storybook features are woven effectively into an appealing tale of youthful empowerment".{{cite news |last=Puig |first=Claudia |author-link=Claudia Puig |title='Nanny McPhee' is no humble servant |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2006-01-26-nanny-mcphee_x.htm |newspaper=USA Today |date=26 January 2006 |access-date=8 February 2014 |archive-date=21 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221065601/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2006-01-26-nanny-mcphee_x.htm |url-status=live }}

The following year, Thompson appeared in the surreal American comedy–drama Stranger than Fiction, playing a novelist whose latest character (played by Will Ferrell) is a real person who hears her narration in his head. Reviews for the film were generally favourable.{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stranger_than_fiction/ |title=Stranger Than Fiction |work=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=9 February 2014 |archive-date=18 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140218110803/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stranger_than_fiction/ |url-status=live }} Following a brief, uncredited role in the post-apocalyptic blockbuster I Am Legend (2007),{{cite news |first=Dana |last=Stevens |title=I Am Legend, reviewed |work=Slate |date=14 December 2007 |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2007/12/i_am_legend.html |access-date=9 February 2014 |archive-date=22 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222040051/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2007/12/i_am_legend.html |url-status=live }} Thompson played the devoutly Catholic Lady Marchmain in a 2008 film adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. Critics were unenthusiastic about the film,{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brideshead_revisited/ |title=Brideshead Revisited |work=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=9 February 2014 |archive-date=25 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225212058/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brideshead_revisited/ |url-status=live }} but several picked Thompson out as its highlight.{{cite news |last=Gleiberman |first=Owen |title=Brideshead Revisited (2008) |url=https://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20214608,00.html |access-date=9 February 2014 |newspaper=Entertainment Weekly |date=30 July 2008 |archive-date=22 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222065647/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20214608,00.html |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |last=Walker |first=Susan |title=Brideshead Revisited: A simpler version |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2008/07/25/brideshead_revisited_a_simpler_version.html |access-date=9 February 2014 |newspaper=Toronto Star |date=25 July 2008 |archive-date=22 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222064523/http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2008/07/25/brideshead_revisited_a_simpler_version.html |url-status=live }} Mark Kermode said "Emma Thompson is to some extent becoming the new Judi Dench, as the person who kind of comes in for 15 minutes and is brilliant ... [but then] when she goes away, the rest of the movie has a real problem living up to the wattage of her presence".{{cite web |title=Brideshead Revisited reviewed by Mark Kermode |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00bv7m1 |work=BBC Radio 5 live |date=27 October 2010 |access-date=9 February 2014 |archive-date=7 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407164836/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00bv7m1 |url-status=dead}}

File:Emma Thompson (2008).jpg in 2008]]

Thompson received further acclaim for her work in the London-based romance Last Chance Harvey (2008), where she and Dustin Hoffman played a lonely, middle-aged pair who cautiously begin a relationship. Critics praised the chemistry between the two leads, and both received Golden Globe nominations for their performances.{{cite web |title=Last Chance Harvey |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_chance_harvey/ |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=17 February 2014 |archive-date=7 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131107071105/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_chance_harvey/ |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last=Travers |first=Peter |title=Last Chance Harvey |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/last-chance-harvey-20090122 |access-date=17 February 2014 |newspaper=Rolling Stone |date=22 January 2009 |archive-date=11 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140411054048/http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/last-chance-harvey-20090122 |url-status=live }} Thompson's two 2009 films were both set in 1960s United Kingdom, and in both she made cameo appearances: as a headmistress in the critically praised drama An Education{{cite web |title=An Education |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/an_education/ |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=17 February 2014 |archive-date=13 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140213183840/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/an_education/ |url-status=live }} and as a "tippling mother" in Richard Curtis's The Boat That Rocked.{{cite news |last=Bradshaw |first=Peter |title=The Boat That Rocked |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/apr/03/boat-that-rocked-film-review |date=3 April 2009 |access-date=17 February 2014 |newspaper=The Guardian |archive-date=10 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230310174225/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/apr/03/boat-that-rocked-film-review |url-status=live }}

Five years after the original, Thompson reprised the role of Nanny McPhee with 2010's Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang. Her screenplay transported the story to Britain during World War II. Building on the first film's success, it was another UK box office number one and the sequel was widely seen as an improvement.{{cite news |title=McPhee makes a bang at box office |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8594759.stm |website=BBC News |access-date=3 March 2014 |date=30 March 2010 |url-status=live |archive-date=27 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127131146/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8594759.stm}}{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nanny_mcphee_returns/ |title=Nanny McPhee Returns |work=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=3 March 2014 |archive-date=27 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427064528/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nanny_mcphee_returns/ |url-status=live }} The same year, Thompson reunited with Alan Rickman for the BBC television film The Song of Lunch, which focused on two unnamed characters meeting at a restaurant 15 years after ending their relationship.{{cite news |last=Preston |first=John |title=The Song of Lunch, BBC Two; The Genius of British Art, C4, review |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8051633/The-Song-of-Lunch-BBC-Two-The-Genius-of-British-Art-C4-review.html |access-date=3 March 2014 |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=8 October 2010 |archive-date=12 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140412093059/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8051633/The-Song-of-Lunch-BBC-Two-The-Genius-of-British-Art-C4-review.html |url-status=live }} Thompson's performance earned her a fourth Emmy Award nomination.

=Career expansion and blockbuster films (2012–present)=

In 2012, Thompson made a rare appearance in a big-budget Hollywood film when she played the head Agent in Men in Black 3 – a continuation of the sci-fi comedy franchise starring Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, and Josh Brolin. With a worldwide gross of $624{{nbsp}}million, MIB3 ranks as Thompson's highest-grossing release outside of the Harry Potter films. This mainstream success continued with the Pixar film Brave, in which Thompson voiced Elinor – the Scottish queen despairing at her daughter's defiance against tradition. It was her second consecutive blockbuster release, and critics were generally kind to the film.{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brave_2012/ |title=Brave |work=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=3 March 2014 |archive-date=20 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140320225910/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brave_2012/ |url-status=live }} Also in 2012, Thompson played Queen Elizabeth II in an episode of Playhouse Presents, which dramatised an incident in 1982 when an intruder broke into the Queen's bedroom.{{cite news |last=Mohan |first=Isabel |title=Playhouse Presents: Walking the Dogs, Sky Arts 1, review |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9291134/Playhouse-Presents-Walking-the-Dogs-Sky-Arts-1-review.html |newspaper=The Telegraph |access-date=3 March 2014 |date=31 May 2012 |archive-date=12 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140412083018/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9291134/Playhouse-Presents-Walking-the-Dogs-Sky-Arts-1-review.html |url-status=live }} Her first film of 2013 was the fantasy romance Beautiful Creatures, in which she played an evil mother. The film aimed to capitalise on the success of The Twilight Saga, but was poorly reviewed and a box office disappointment.{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beautiful_creatures_2013 |title=Beautiful Creatures |work=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=3 March 2014 |archive-date=13 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140113004511/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beautiful_creatures_2013/ |url-status=live }}{{cite news |first=Dorothy |last=Pomerantz |date=20 August 2013 |title='The Mortal Instruments' Is Not The Next 'Hunger Games.' So What Is? |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2013/08/20/the-mortal-instruments-is-not-the-next-hunger-games-so-what-is/ |access-date=3 March 2014 |work=Forbes |archive-date=24 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180924115722/https://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2013/08/20/the-mortal-instruments-is-not-the-next-hunger-games-so-what-is/ |url-status=live }} Film critic Peter Travers was critical of Thompson's performance and "outrageously awful Southern accent", and feared "the damage this crock may do to [her] reputation".{{cite news |last=Travers |first=Peter |title=Beautiful Creatures |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/beautiful-creatures-20130214 |access-date=3 March 2014 |newspaper=Rolling Stone |date=14 February 2013 |archive-date=3 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131003023617/http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/beautiful-creatures-20130214 |url-status=live }}

Saving Mr. Banks, which depicted the making of Mary Poppins, starred Thompson in a leading role as P. L. Travers, the curmudgeonly author of the source novel, alongside Tom Hanks as Walt Disney. Her performance, in contrast to her widely panned appearance in Beautiful Creatures, was received enthusiastically, with one journalist writing "Emma Thompson is back, firing on all cylinders." She found it to be the best script she had read in years and was delighted to be offered the role. She considered it the most challenging of her career because she had "never really played anyone quite so contradictory or difficult before",{{cite interview|last=Thompson|first=Emma|interviewer=Dave Davies|url=https://www.npr.org/2014/01/09/261044820/not-so-cheery-disposition-emma-thompson-on-poppins-cranky-creator|title=Not-So-Cheery Disposition: Emma Thompson on Poppins' Cranky Creator|work=Fresh Air|publisher=NPR|date=9 January 2014|access-date=16 April 2021|archive-date=16 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416033506/https://www.npr.org/2014/01/09/261044820/not-so-cheery-disposition-emma-thompson-on-poppins-cranky-creator|url-status=live}} but found the inconsistent and complicated character "a blissful joy to embody". The film was well-received, grossed $112{{nbsp}}million worldwide, and Thompson's performance garnered critical acclaim.{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/saving_mr_banks_2013 |title=Saving Mr. Banks (2013) |work=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=11 March 2014 |archive-date=11 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140311061440/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/saving_mr_banks_2013/ |url-status=live }}
{{cite web |url=https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=savingmrbanks.htm |title=Saving Mr. Banks (2013) |website=Box Office Mojo |access-date=11 March 2014 |archive-date=15 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140315163745/http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=savingmrbanks.htm |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last=Walsh |first=John |title=Emma Thompson: Nanny knows best – especially when it comes to picking parts |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/emma-thompson-nanny-knows-best--especially-when-it-comes-to-picking-parts-8905010.html |newspaper=The Independent |access-date=11 March 2014 |date=25 October 2013 |archive-date=13 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313165647/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/emma-thompson-nanny-knows-best--especially-when-it-comes-to-picking-parts-8905010.html |url-status=live }} The review in The Independent expressed thanks that her "playing of Travers is so deft that we instantly warm to her, and forgive her her snobbery",{{cite news |last=Phelan |first=Laurence |title=Film review: Saving Mr Banks (PG) |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/film-review-saving-mr-banks-pg-8970279.html |newspaper=The Independent |access-date=11 March 2014 |date=29 November 2013 |archive-date=11 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140311232252/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/film-review-saving-mr-banks-pg-8970279.html |url-status=live }} while Total Film{{'}}s critic felt that Thompson brought depth to the "predictable" film with "her best performance in years".{{cite news |last=Bradshaw |first=Paul |title=Saving Mr Banks |url=http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/saving-mr-banks |newspaper=Total Film |access-date=11 March 2014 |date=25 November 2013 |archive-date=7 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140207063246/http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/saving-mr-banks |url-status=live }} Thompson was nominated for Best Actress at the BAFTAs, SAGs and Golden Globes, and was awarded the Lead Actress trophy from the National Board of Review. Meryl Streep, her co-star in Angels in America, admitted to being "shocked" at Thompson's failure to receive an Oscar nomination for Saving Mr. Banks.{{cite web |last=Beaumont-Thomas |first=Ben |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/21/meryl-streep-emma-thompson-oscar-snub |title=Meryl Streep 'shocked' at Emma Thompson Oscar snub |work=The Guardian |date=21 January 2014 |access-date=27 March 2014 |archive-date=27 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327234753/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/21/meryl-streep-emma-thompson-oscar-snub |url-status=live }}

File:Emma Thompson at 2013 TIFF 2 (cropped).jpg at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival]]

The romantic comedy The Love Punch (2013) gave Thompson her second consecutive leading role, where she played half of a divorced couple who reunite to steal the man's ex-boss's diamond.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/06/the-love-punch-toronto-2013-review |title=The Love Punch: Toronto 2013 – first look review |work=The Guardian |date=6 September 2013 |access-date=13 March 2014 |first=Henry |last=Barnes |archive-date=9 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109040845/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/06/the-love-punch-toronto-2013-review |url-status=live }} In March 2014, she made her first stage appearance in 24 years – and her New York debut – in a Lincoln Center production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. She appeared in the musical for five nights, and her "playful" performance of Mrs Lovett was highly praised; the critic Kayla Epstein wrote that she "not only held her own against more experienced vocalists, but wound up running off with the show".{{cite news |last=Brown |first=Mark |title=Emma Thompson makes acclaimed New York debut in Sweeney Todd |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/06/emma-thompson-new-york-stage-debut-sweeney-todd |access-date=11 March 2014 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=6 March 2014 |archive-date=8 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308075446/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/06/emma-thompson-new-york-stage-debut-sweeney-todd |url-status=live }} She received her sixth Primetime Emmy Award nomination, specifically for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for the televised performance.{{cite web |title=Emma Thompson |url=http://www.emmys.com/bios/emma-thompson |website=Emmys.com |access-date=11 September 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906035232/http://www.emmys.com/bios/emma-thompson |url-status=live }} In 2014, Thompson provided the narration for Jason Reitman's comedy-drama film, Men, Women & Children.{{cite web |url=https://collider.com/men-women-children-movie-filming-jason-reitman/ |title=Production Begins on Jason Reitman's MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN Starring Adam Sandler and Rosemarie Dewitt; Full Cast Revealed |website=Collider |access-date=13 March 2014 |first=Adam |last=Chitwood |date=16 December 2013 |archive-date=13 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313181155/http://collider.com/men-women-children-movie-filming-jason-reitman/ |url-status=live }}

The period drama Effie Gray, a project that she had been working on for many years, based on the true-life story of John Ruskin's disastrous marriage, was written by Thompson but became the subject of a copyright suit before being cleared for cinemas. The American playwright Gregory Murphy said that Thompson's screenplay was an infringement on his play and screenplay The Countess, which he claimed he had submitted to Thompson through a mutual friend in 2003 to consider the role of Elizabeth Eastlake in a proposed film of his play, and to Thompson's husband Greg Wise through a casting director to consider the role of John Ruskin in the play's 2005 West End production.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/8440167/Actress-Emma-Thompson-is-accused-over-failed-marriage-tale.html |title=Actress Emma Thompson is accused over failed marriage tale |first=Richard |last=Eden |date=10 April 2011 |newspaper=The Telegraph |url-status=live |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412145528/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/8440167/Actress-Emma-Thompson-is-accused-over-failed-marriage-tale.html}} In 2008, Thompson announced that she and Wise "had written a script together about John Ruskin, the Victorian art critic, which we want to make into a film." After meeting with Thompson and her producers, Potboiler Productions, Murphy was offered a screenwriting fee and co-screenwriting credit with Thompson in settlement of his claim.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/3137506/Emma-Thompson-and-Greg-Wises-portrait-of-a-passionless-marriage.html |title=Emma Thompson and Greg Wise's portrait of a passionless marriage |last=Eden |first=Richard |date=4 October 2008|newspaper=The Telegraph|url-status=live|archive-date=20 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240420112903/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/3137506/Emma-Thompson-and-Greg-Wises-portrait-of-a-passionless-marriage.html}} This settlement offer was later abandoned by Thompson, Greg Wise and their partner Donald Rosenfeld, when their company Sovereign Films took over production of the film and instigated the suit, creating the independent entity Effie Film, LLC to litigate it.{{cite news|last=Child |first=Ben |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/dec/19/emma-thompson-wins-effie-lawsuit/ |title=Emma Thompson wins Effie lawsuit |date=19 December 2012 |access-date=8 June 2023 |newspaper=The Guardian |url-status=live |archive-date=27 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527123641/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/dec/19/emma-thompson-wins-effie-lawsuit}}{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/celebritynews/10279272/John-Ruskin-legal-battle-goes-on-for-Emma-Thompson.html |title=John Ruskin legal battle goes on for Emma Thompson |date=2 September 2013 |access-date=8 June 2023 |newspaper=The Telegraph |last=Balls |first=Katy |url-status=live |archive-date=11 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230611174903/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/celebritynews/10279272/John-Ruskin-legal-battle-goes-on-for-Emma-Thompson.html}} In March 2013, District Court Judge Thomas P. Griesa, after allowing Thompson to submit a second revised screenplay into evidence from which Murphy claimed "some of the most troubling material" had been removed,{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9950105/Emma-Thompson-wins-John-Ruskin-legal-battle.html |title=Emma Thompson wins John Ruskin legal battle |first=Richard |last=Eden |date=24 March 2013 |newspaper=The Telegraph |url-status=live |archive-date=14 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114174717/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9950105/Emma-Thompson-wins-John-Ruskin-legal-battle.html}} ruled that while there were similarities, the screenplays were "quite dissimilar in their two approaches to fictionalising the same historical events".{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/mar/21/emma-thompson-effie-cleared-for-release |title=Emma Thompson's Effie cleared for release after winning second lawsuit |first=Ben |last=Child |newspaper=The Guardian |date=21 March 2013 |access-date=27 March 2014 |url-status=live |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412145526/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/mar/21/emma-thompson-effie-cleared-for-release}}{{citation |url=http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-york/nysdce/1:2011cv00783/374801/42/ |title=Effie Film, LLC v. Murphy, No. 1:2011cv00783 - Document 42 (S.D.N.Y. 2013)}} In response to Murphy's attorney's concerns that the completed film Effie Gray would not adhere to Thompson's second revised screenplay, Judge Griesa concluded his ruling by saying that Thompson's film would not infringe Murphy's play or screenplay "only to the extent that it does not substantially deviate from the November 29, 2011 screenplay," the date of Thompson's second revised screenplay. In May 2013, Effie Gray's Cannes Film Festival premiere was cancelled. In October 2013, the film was withdrawn from the Mill Valley Film Festival in California due to "unforeseen circumstances" according to producer Rosenfeld.{{cite web |url=http://mvff.squarespace.com/mvff-news-archive/2013/10/14/award-winning-film-oh-boy-will-replace-effie-gray.html |title=Award-winning film 'Oh Boy' will replace 'Effie Gray' |date=14 October 2013 |website=mvff.squarespace.com |publisher=Mill Valley Film Festival |access-date=25 November 2018 |archive-date=25 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181125074130/http://mvff.squarespace.com/mvff-news-archive/2013/10/14/award-winning-film-oh-boy-will-replace-effie-gray.html |url-status=dead }}{{cite news|url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/10378328/Emma-Thompsons-film-about-Effie-Gray-is-withdrawn-from-film-festival.html |title=Emma Thompson's film about Effie Gray is withdrawn from film festival | last=Walker |first=Tim |date=15 October 2013|newspaper=The Telegraph|url-status=live |archive-date=9 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409101253/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/10378328/Emma-Thompsons-film-about-Effie-Gray-is-withdrawn-from-film-festival.html}} In December 2013, Thompson said of the still unreleased Effie Gray that its "time has probably passed," comparing it to another project of hers that "didn't happen either".{{cite news |url=http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/film/emma-thompson-on-her-role-in-saving-mr-banks-1-3216286 |title=Emma Thompson on her role in Saving Mr Banks |first=Siobhan |last=Synnot |date=3 December 2013 |newspaper=The Scotsman}} Effie Gray was released in October 2014, to a modest reception.{{cite web |title=Effie Gray |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/effie_gray/ |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=17 December 2014}} Thompson plays Elizabeth Eastlake and Greg Wise plays John Ruskin. They both declined to promote the film.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11143960/Emma-Thompson-declines-to-plug-her-new-film-Effie-Gray.html |title=Emma Thompson declines to plug her new film Effie Gray |first=Tim |last=Walker |date=7 October 2014 |newspaper=The Telegraph |url-status=live |archive-date=1 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240301230605/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11143960/Emma-Thompson-declines-to-plug-her-new-film-Effie-Gray.html}}{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11146706/Josh-Hartnett-teaches-Tamsin-Egerton-how-to-do-an-American-accent.html |title=Josh Hartnett is Tamsin Egerton's personal tutor |last=Walker |first=Tim |date=8 October 2014|newspaper=The Telegraph|url-status=live |archive-date=3 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240203150224/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11146706/Josh-Hartnett-teaches-Tamsin-Egerton-how-to-do-an-American-accent.html}} Camilla Long, reviewing Effie Gray in The Sunday Times, wrote "nothing fits together" and "no one seems to know why they made this film. Where is Thompson's passion and commitment, or any hint of what she intended to achieve."{{cite news |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/effie-gray-and-71-kjcrhs0h7rv |title=Effie Gray and '71 |first=Camilla |last=Long |date=12 October 2014 |newspaper=The Times |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-date=17 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240917181041/https://www.thetimes.com/article/effie-gray-and-71-kjcrhs0h7rv}} Manohla Dargis in her review in The New York Times called Effie Gray "The cinematic equivalent of a Brazilian wax, the movie omits much of the story's most interesting material to create something that's been smoothly denatured."{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/03/movies/review-effie-gray-stars-dakota-fanning-as-a-rejected-wife.html |title=Review: Effie Gray' Stars Dakota Fanning as a Rejected Wife |first=Manohla |last=Dargis |date=2 April 2015 |newspaper=The New York Times}}

Thompson's first film of 2015 was A Walk in the Woods, a comedy adapted from the book by Bill Bryson of which she co-starred with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte. She next starred in The Legend of Barney Thomson. Her role was a 77-year-old foul-mouthed, chain-smoking, Glaswegian former prostitute, the mother of the title character. Neither film was a critical success, although the latter received some positive reviews and Empire magazine wrote that Thomson was "unforgettable".{{cite web |title=A Walk in the Woods |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_walk_in_the_woods_2015/ |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=11 September 2015 |archive-date=9 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909181926/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_walk_in_the_woods_2015 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=The Legend of Barney Thompson |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/barney_thomson |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=17 September 2024 |archive-date=30 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151130002906/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/barney_thomson |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=The Legend of Barney Thompson |url=https://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=139145 |website=Empire |access-date=11 September 2015 |archive-date=5 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905185742/http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=139145 |url-status=dead }} Later that year, she had a supporting role in the restaurant-based film Burnt. In 2016, she starred in the World War II-drama Alone in Berlin, based on the story of Otto and Elise Hampel. She also co-wrote the screenplay for Bridget Jones's Baby and appeared in the film as a doctor.

File:Cannes 2017 19.jpg at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival]]

In 2017, Thompson appeared in a supporting role as Mrs. Potts (originally voiced by Angela Lansbury in the 1991 animated film) in Disney's live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, directed by Bill Condon and starring her Harry Potter co-star Emma Watson in the leading role of Belle, alongside Dan Stevens as the Beast.{{cite news |last1=Ford |first1=Rebecca |title=Disney's Live-Action 'Beauty and the Beast' Gets Release Date |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disneys-live-action-beauty-beast-781683 |access-date=16 March 2015 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=16 March 2015 |archive-date=7 January 2017 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170107180606/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disneys-live-action-beauty-beast-781683 |url-status=live }} The film received positive reviews and grossed $1.2{{nbsp}}billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing live-action musical film, the second highest-grossing film of 2017, and the 17th highest-grossing film of all time.{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beauty_and_the_beast_2017 |title=Beauty and the Beast (2017) |work=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=11 December 2017 |archive-date=11 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171211204754/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beauty_and_the_beast_2017/ |url-status=live }}
{{cite web |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=beautyandthebeast2017.htm |title=Beauty and the Beast (2017) |website=Box Office Mojo |access-date=18 September 2017 |archive-date=26 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190826163452/https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=beautyandthebeast2017.htm |url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-reviews/beauty-and-the-beast-review-9971177|title=Beauty and the Beast review: Irresistible charm shows no one casts a spell quite like Disney|author=Chris Hunneysett|work=Daily Mirror|date=17 March 2017|access-date=27 April 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20170910200005/http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-reviews/beauty-and-the-beast-review-9971177|archive-date=10 September 2017}}{{Cite web|title=Lavish 'Beauty and the Beast' true as it can be to original|url=https://chicago.suntimes.com/2017/3/15/18322097/lavish-beauty-and-the-beast-true-as-it-can-be-to-original|last=Roeper|first=Richard|date=15 March 2017|website=Chicago Sun-Times|language=en|access-date=25 May 2020|archive-date=10 September 2017|archive-url=https://archive.today/20170910202458/http://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment/lavish-beauty-and-the-beast-true-as-it-can-be-to-original/|url-status=live}} She also had a supporting role as a hippy in the Noah Baumbach-directed dramedy The Meyerowitz Stories, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim.{{cite web |title=The Meyerowitz Stories (2017) |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_meyerowitz_stories/ |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=15 October 2017 |archive-date=29 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200229075036/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_meyerowitz_stories |url-status=live }} She followed it with a starring role in the film The Children Act, a drama about a family who refuse cancer treatment for their son based on religious beliefs. She had a cameo role as Queen Elizabeth I in the 2017 Christmas special of the BBC sitcom Upstart Crow. In 2018, she provided the voiceover for Greenpeace's palm-oil awareness commercial which Iceland (supermarket) picked to promote as their 2018 Christmas advertisement. The commercial was rejected by the advertising organisation Clearcast due to Greenpeace's alleged involvement in politics, thus violating their code of conduct.{{cite news |title=Iceland Christmas advert banned for being too political |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/09/iceland-christmas-advert-banned-political/ |access-date=28 November 2018 |work=The Telegraph |date=9 November 2018 |archive-date=12 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181112030619/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/09/iceland-christmas-advert-banned-political/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web|last=McCarthy |first=John |date=12 November 2018 |url=https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/11/12/clearcast-clarifies-iceland-palm-oil-christmas-tv-ad-ban-misunderstanding|title=Clearcast clarifies Iceland palm oil Christmas TV ad ban 'misunderstanding'|website=The Drum|language=en|access-date=2 May 2019|archive-date=8 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208035618/https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/11/12/clearcast-clarifies-iceland-palm-oil-christmas-tv-ad-ban-misunderstanding|url-status=live}} Also that year, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2018 Birthday Honours for services to drama.{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-44397682 |title=Birthday Honours 2018: Kenny Dalglish and Emma Thompson head list |date=9 June 2018 |work=BBC News |access-date=11 June 2018 |archive-date=9 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180609090106/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-44397682 |url-status=live}} In 2018, she also starred in Johnny English Strikes Again as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom alongside Rowan Atkinson.

Thompson starred in the comedy-drama Late Night (2019), which was written by Mindy Kaling (who also co-starred in that film) and featured her as a popular television host who hires a new writer to keep the show from getting replaced.{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2019/film/news/mindy-kaling-late-night-june-1203151898/|title=Mindy Kaling's 'Late Night' Opening in June|website=Variety|first=Brent|last=Lang|date=28 February 2019|access-date=11 December 2019|archive-date=10 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210110011339/https://variety.com/2019/film/news/mindy-kaling-late-night-june-1203151898/|url-status=live}} The film received positive reviews, with Thompson being singled out for praise, and Owen Gleiberman of Variety remarked that "Thompson truly seems like a born talk-show host. Even when she's just riffing, she grounds Late Night in something real."{{cite web|title=Film Review: Late Night|author=Owen Gleiberman|author-link=Owen Glieberman|work=Variety|date=26 January 2019|url=https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/late-night-review-emma-thompson-2-1203119170/|access-date=16 December 2019|archive-date=22 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222025732/https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/late-night-review-emma-thompson-2-1203119170/|url-status=live}} She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.{{cite news|url=https://variety.com/2019/film/news/2020-golden-globes-nominations-list-nominees-1203426905/|title=Golden Globes 2020: The Complete Nominations List|work=Variety|date=9 December 2019|access-date=9 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209155211/https://variety.com/2019/film/news/2020-golden-globes-nominations-list-nominees-1203426905/|archive-date=9 December 2019}} In the same year, she voiced as the Yeti Elder in the stop-motion animated film Missing Link, reprised her role as Agent O in a more substantial part in Men in Black: International, and co-produced and co-starred alongside Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding in the festive romantic comedy Last Christmas, which was based on the song of the same name by George Michael, and was written by Thompson, her husband Greg Wise, and Bryony Kimmings.{{cite web |date= 28 September 2018 |last=Ford |first=Rebecca |title= Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding to Star in 'Last Christmas' (Exclusive) |url= https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/emilia-clarke-henry-golding-star-last-christmas-1141382 |website= The Hollywood Reporter |access-date= 11 December 2019 |archive-date= 20 December 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181220134416/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/emilia-clarke-henry-golding-star-last-christmas-1141382 |url-status= live }}

In 2021, Thompson starred opposite Emma Stone as the titular protagonist villain in Cruella, a Disney live-action spin-off/reboot of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, directed by Craig Gillespie, which was released on 28 May 2021 to positive reviews and has grossed $233{{nbsp}}million worldwide against its $100{{nbsp}}million budget.{{Cite Rotten Tomatoes|title=Cruella (2021)|id=cruella|type=movie|access-date=8 October 2021}}
{{Cite Box Office Mojo|id=3228774|title=Cruella (2021)|access-date=17 September 2021}}
{{Cite The Numbers|id=Cruella-(2021)|title=Cruella (2021)|access-date=14 September 2021}}{{Cite news |last=Bahr |first=Lindsey |date=28 May 2021 |title=In a Punk 'Cruella,' Dogs Play Second Fiddle to the Designs |work=NBC News |url=https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/in-a-punk-cruella-dogs-play-second-fiddle-to-the-designs/2557387/ |url-status=live |access-date=30 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608141322/https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/in-a-punk-cruella-dogs-play-second-fiddle-to-the-designs/2557387/ |archive-date=8 June 2021}}{{cite web |last=Kroll |first=Justin |url=https://variety.com/2019/film/news/emma-thompson-cruella-emma-stone-disney-1203215057/ |title=Emma Thompson in Talks to Join Emma Stone in Disney's 'Cruella' |date=14 May 2019 |website=Variety |access-date=1 August 2019 |url-status=live |archive-date=17 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240117045522/https://variety.com/2019/film/news/emma-thompson-cruella-emma-stone-disney-1203215057/}} She won praise from critics for the role of the Baroness with Alonso Duralde from The Wrap writing, "Thompson sinking every last tooth into a role that's half Miranda Priestly and half Reynolds Woodcock."{{cite web|last=Duralde |first=Alonso |url=https://www.thewrap.com/cruella-film-review-emma-stone-emma-thompson/|title='Cruella' Film Review: Emma Stone Generates Sympathy for the de Vil|website=The Wrap|date=28 May 2021|access-date=6 June 2021}} In 2022, Thompson starred opposite Daryl McCormack in the sex comedy-drama Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, written by Katy Brand and directed by Sophie Hyde.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/movies/good-luck-to-you-leo-grande-review.html |title='Good Luck to You, Leo Grande' Review: Pleasure Principles |date=15 June 2022 |last=Kennedy |first=Lisa |work=The New York Times |access-date=11 August 2022}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-06-16/good-luck-to-you-leo-grande-review-emma-thompson |title=Review: Emma Thompson gets (and gives) marvelous sex ed in 'Good Luck to You, Leo Grande' |date=16 June 2022 |last=Chang |first=Justin |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=11 August 2022}}

Thompson plays the authoritarian headmistress Miss Trunchbull in the film adaptation of Matilda the Musical, which in turn is based on the novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. It is directed by Matthew Warchus, with a script written by Dennis Kelly and songs composed by Tim Minchin.{{Cite web|last=Joe Anderton|date=9 June 2021|title=New Matilda movie lands 2022 release date for UK cinemas and Netflix|url=https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a36676220/matilda-movie-musical-release-date-netflix/|access-date=30 August 2021|website=Digital Spy}} Following its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on 5 October 2022, film critic Robbie Collin of The Telegraph wrote Thompson's portrayal of Trunchbull is "a deranged villain to remember".{{cite news |title=Emma Thompson gives Matilda The Musical a deranged villain to remember |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/roald-dahls-matilda-musical-film-review-emma-thompsons-masterclass/ |access-date=22 November 2022 |work=The Telegraph |last=Collin |first=Robbie |date=24 November 2022 |url-status=live |archive-date=19 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240119081930/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/roald-dahls-matilda-musical-film-review-emma-thompsons-masterclass/}} The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw stated "the gleefully sly comedy kindred spirits of Thompson and Minchin come together to form the film's bedrock of naughtiness".{{cite news |last=Bradshaw |first=Peter |title=Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical review – all-singing, hall-dancing adaptation is by the book brilliance |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/oct/05/roald-dahls-matilda-the-musical-review-all-singing-hall-dancing-adaptation-is-by-the-book-brilliance |date=5 October 2022 |access-date=22 November 2022 |work=The Guardian |url-status=live |archive-date=28 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240128040631/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/oct/05/roald-dahls-matilda-the-musical-review-all-singing-hall-dancing-adaptation-is-by-the-book-brilliance}} In 2022, she also starred alongside Lily James and Sajal Aly in the romantic comedy What's Love Got to Do with It?{{cite web |last=Ramachandran |first=Naman |date=15 January 2021 |title=Rob Brydon, Shabana Azmi Board Lily James and Emma Thompson Comedy 'What's Love Got To Do With It?' |url=https://variety.com/2021/film/news/rob-brydon-shabana-azmi-whats-love-got-to-do-with-it-lily-james-1234886213/ |access-date=21 January 2021 |work=Variety |url-status=live |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412145537/https://variety.com/2021/film/news/rob-brydon-shabana-azmi-whats-love-got-to-do-with-it-lily-james-1234886213/}}

In the upcoming film The Fisherwoman, directed by Brian Kirk, Thompson is attached to star alongside Laurel Marsden and Judy Greer.{{cite web |last=Kay |first=Jeremy |title=Judy Greer joins Emma Thompson on Stampede, augenschein's 'The Fisherwoman' (exclusive) |date=8 February 2024 |website=Screen Daily |url=https://www.screendaily.com/news/judy-greer-joins-emma-thompson-on-stampede-augenscheins-the-fisherwoman-exclusive/5190299.article |access-date=26 June 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2024/02/marvel-laurel-marsden-emma-thompson-judy-greer-fisherwoman-1235838382/|title='Ms. Marvel' Actress Laurel Marsden Joins Emma Thompson & Judy Greer In Action-Thriller 'The Fisherwoman'|first=Andreas|last=Wiseman|work=Deadline Hollywood|date=26 February 2024|access-date=26 June 2024}} The film was shot in the 2024 winter in North Karelia, Finland,{{cite web|url=https://www.hbl.fi/2024-03-01/kolis-skogar-blir-minnesota-i-internationell-storfilm/|title=Kolis skogar blir Minnesota i internationell storfilm|first=Jonas|last=Forsbacka|work=Hufvudstadsbladet|date=1 March 2024|access-date=26 June 2024|language=sv|url-access=subscription}} where Thompson praised the skills of the local working crew,{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2024/film/global/emma-thompson-finnish-crew-the-fisherwoman-1235956142/|title=Emma Thompson Gushes Over Working With Finnish Crew on 'The Fisherwoman': 'They Cared for Us, and They Showed Us Where the Best Bars Were'|first=Marta|last=Balaga|work=Variety|date=30 March 2024|access-date=26 June 2024}} even writing a laudatory letter dedicated to the Finns, published by Helsingin Sanomat.{{cite web|url=https://skimbacolifestyle.com/2024/03/emma-thompson-film-in-finland.html|title=Movie Star Emma Thompson Speaks Up Why Film Production in Finland Should Be Supported|first=Katja|last=Presnal|work=Skimbaco Lifestyle|date=31 March 2024 |access-date=26 June 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/art-2000010327541.html|title=Emma Thompsonin kirje suomalaisille|trans-title=Emma Thompson's letter to Finns|work=Helsingin Sanomat|date=29 March 2024|access-date=26 June 2024}} Because of this, the Finnish president Alexander Stubb personally called Thompson and thanked the actress "for her beautiful words, trust in Finns and welcomed her back to Finland".{{cite web|url=https://www.aamulehti.fi/elokuvat/art-2000010328672.html|title=Presidentti Stubb soitti Suomea hehkuttaneelle brittinäyttelijä Emma Thompsonille|first=Veli-Pekka|last=Lehtonen|work=Aamulehti|date=30 March 2024|access-date=26 June 2024|language=fi}}

Reception and acting style

Thompson is regarded to be among the best actresses of her generation{{cite book |last=Ingersoll |first=Earl G. |title=Filming Forster: The Challenges of Adapting E.M. Forster's Novels for the Screen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oW6ivEXkrQ0C&pg=PA242 |date=16 February 2012 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-1-61147-518-0 |page=242 |access-date=27 February 2016 |archive-date=3 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703070535/http://books.google.com/books?id=oW6ivEXkrQ0C&pg=PA242 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |first=Sarah |last=Sands |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/sarah-sands/sarah-sands-emma-thompson-is-the-true-lady-of-brideshead-951675.html |title=Sarah Sands: Emma Thompson is the true lady of Brideshead |work=The Independent |date=5 October 2008 |access-date=27 March 2014 |archive-date=9 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151209010845/http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/sarah-sands/sarah-sands-emma-thompson-is-the-true-lady-of-brideshead-951675.html |url-status=live }} and one of Britain's most recognisable actresses, held in high regard within Hollywood.{{cite news |first=David |last=Gritten |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/10470328/Emma-Thompson-Why-I-despair-of-pressure-to-be-model-thin.html |title=Emma Thompson: Why I despair of pressure to be model-thin |work=The Telegraph |date=23 November 2013 |access-date=27 March 2014 |archive-date=9 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140509192717/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/10470328/Emma-Thompson-Why-I-despair-of-pressure-to-be-model-thin.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/why-are-they-famous-emma-thompson-1131847.html |title=Why Are They Famous?: Emma Thompson |work=The Independent |date=12 December 1999 |access-date=27 March 2014 |archive-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208174202/http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/why-are-they-famous-emma-thompson-1131847.html |url-status=live }} Early in her career she was closely associated with her first husband, Kenneth Branagh. The public warmed to her after the separation, and she became one of the key actresses of the 1990s.{{cite web |last=Sexton |first=Timothy|url=http://voices.yahoo.com/the-best-actress-1990s-emma-thompson-284969.html?cat=40 |title=The Best Actress of the 1990s: Emma Thompson |website=Yahoo! |date=20 April 2007 |access-date=30 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407104925/http://voices.yahoo.com/the-best-actress-1990s-emma-thompson-284969.html?cat=40 |archive-date=7 April 2014}} Her status has continued to grow; in 2008, journalist Sarah Sands stated that Thompson has improved with age and experience, and Mark Kermode said of her performances, "There is something about her which is — you just trust her. You just think 'I'm in proper hands here.' ... She's up there with the great, I mean really great, British female performers".

{{Quote box

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|quote = "I am an instinctive actress. I don't have technique because I never learnt any. I do the cerebral bit before I start. Then I just let it be. I allow whatever rises to rise naturally. You are tricking your subconscious. I work from the inside out."

|source = – Thompson on her approach to acting

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Thompson is particularly known for playing reticent women,{{cite web |url=http://www.readersdigest.co.za/interview%20with%20emma%20thompson |title=Interview with Emma Thompson |work=Reader's Digest (South Africa) |date=18 December 2009 |access-date=30 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130926095914/http://www.readersdigest.co.za/interview%20with%20emma%20thompson |archive-date=26 September 2013}} and Sands describes her as "the best actress of our times on suffering borne with poignant dignity". According to Kate Kellaway of The Guardian, she specialises in playing "a good woman in a frock".{{cite web |first=Kate |last=Kellaway |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/oct/16/features.review1 |title=Warts'n'all |work=The Guardian |date=16 October 2005 |access-date=30 March 2014 |archive-date=9 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409095748/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/oct/16/features.review1 |url-status=live }} She also plays many haughty characters, with a "bracing, nanny-like demeanour",{{cite news |first=Vanessa |last=Thorpe |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2014/mar/22/emma-thompson-profile-a-lister-effie |title=Emma Thompson: the A-lister who sets her own rules |newspaper=The Observer |date=22 March 2014 |access-date=27 March 2014 |archive-date=27 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327001951/http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2014/mar/22/emma-thompson-profile-a-lister-effie |url-status=live }} but she is noted for her ability to win the empathy of audiences. Thompson belongs to a group of highly decorated British actresses including Judi Dench, Kate Winslet and Helena Bonham Carter who are known for appearing in "heritage films" and typically showing "restraint, rendering emotions through intellect rather than feelings, and a sense of irony, which demonstrates the heroine's superior understanding".{{cite book |last=Hollinger |first=Karen |title=The Actress: Hollywood Acting and the Female Star |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=89W0QMDjA7gC&pg=PA62 |year=2006 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-97792-0 |page=62 |access-date=27 February 2016 |archive-date=3 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703065415/http://books.google.com/books?id=89W0QMDjA7gC&pg=PA62 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last=Mazierska |first=Ewa |title=Polish Postcommunist Cinema: From Pavement Level |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fEaaNtRd9T8C&pg=PA85 |year=2007 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=978-3-03910-529-8 |page=85 |access-date=27 February 2016 |archive-date=3 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703065342/http://books.google.com/books?id=fEaaNtRd9T8C&pg=PA85 |url-status=live }} Projecting a typically "British image", Thompson's often dogmatic and tight-jawed manner has also been compared to that of Maggie Smith.

With a background in comedy, Thompson's performances are typically delivered with an ironic touch. Ang Lee, director of Sense and Sensibility, stated that Thompson's comedic approach may be her greatest asset as an actress, remarking, "Emma is an extremely funny lady. Like Austen, she's laughing at her own culture while she's a part of it."{{cite news |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8355641.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611100655/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8355641.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 June 2014 |first=Matthew |last=Gilbert |title=Emma and sensibility Thompson, says the director of her Jane Austen adaptation, "is an extremely funny lady. Like Austen, she's laughing at her own culture while she's a part of it." |newspaper=The Boston Globe |date=10 December 1995 |access-date=27 March 2014}} Thompson has stated that the "most moving things are often also funny, in life and in art" which is present in her film work. She often brings her real personality to her roles, and Kellaway believes that her lack of conventional beauty contributes to her likeability as an actress.

Writing

In 2012, Thompson wrote The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit as an addition to the Peter Rabbit series by Beatrix Potter to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the publication of The Tale of Peter Rabbit.{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/10/11/161708397/emma-thompson-revives-anarchist-peter-rabbit |title=Emma Thompson revives anarchist Peter Rabbit |website=NPR.org |date=11 October 2012 |access-date=27 March 2014 |archive-date=19 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219102113/https://www.npr.org/2012/10/11/161708397/emma-thompson-revives-anarchist-peter-rabbit |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.peterrabbit.com/en/thefurthertaleofpeterrabbit |title=The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit |website=Official website of the Peter Rabbit series, Frederick Warne & Co |access-date=27 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140326074523/http://www.peterrabbit.com/en/thefurthertaleofpeterrabbit |archive-date=26 March 2014 }} She was approached by the publishers to write it, the first authorised Peter story since 1930 and the only one not written by Potter. The book falls in the middle of the earlier series, rather than at the end, and takes Peter Rabbit outside of Mr. McGregor's garden and into Scotland. It was a New York Times Best Seller.{{cite web |title=The Christmas Tale of Peter Rabbit |url=http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/emma+thompson/the+christmas+tale+of+peter+rabbit/9759802/ |website=Waterstones |access-date=1 February 2014 |archive-date=2 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202145919/http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/emma+thompson/the+christmas+tale+of+peter+rabbit/9759802/ |url-status=live }} In 2013, Thompson wrote a second book in the series titled The Christmas Tale of Peter Rabbit. A third book, The Spectacular Tale of Peter Rabbit, was released in 2014.{{cite news |last=Silman |first=Anna |title=An Evening With Emma Thompson and Peter Rabbit |url=https://www.vulture.com/2014/10/emma-thompson-spectacular-peter-rabbit-interview.html |date=3 October 2014 |access-date=8 October 2022 |work=Vulture |url-status=live |archive-date=28 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328060421/https://www.vulture.com/2014/10/emma-thompson-spectacular-peter-rabbit-interview.html}} In 2018, Thompson said she would like to write about "what it's like being human now".{{Cite news|url=https://www.vulture.com/2018/09/emma-thompson-in-conversation.html|title=Emma Thompson in conversation|last=Marchese|first=David|date=13 September 2018|work=Vulture|access-date=14 January 2020|archive-date=14 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114230111/https://www.vulture.com/2018/09/emma-thompson-in-conversation.html|url-status=live}}

Other work

File:Boodles London Flagship Launch (cropped).jpg client, Thompson at the 2015 launch party for the luxury British jewellers' flagship store in Bond Street, London]]

In 2014, Thompson was among a group of influential British women, which included Annie Lennox and Rita Ora, to feature in the latest iteration of British retailer Marks & Spencer's 'Leading Ladies' marketing campaign.{{cite news |last=Marriott |first=Hannah |title=Marks & Spencer's 2014 'Leading Ladies' campaign: who's who? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2014/mar/24/marks-spencers-2014-leading-ladies-campaign-whos-who |date=24 March 2014 |access-date=7 June 2022 |work=The Guardian |url-status=live |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412072907/https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2014/mar/24/marks-spencers-2014-leading-ladies-campaign-whos-who}}{{cite news |last=Wall |first=Natalie |date=24 March 2014 |title=Meet Marks & Spencer's new leading ladies for Spring/Summer 2014 |url=https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/fashion/news/a25921/marks-spencer-new-leading-ladies/ |access-date=7 June 2022 |work=Cosmopolitan}}

Acting credits and accolades

{{See also|Emma Thompson on screen and stage|List of awards and nominations received by Emma Thompson}}

Thompson has won two Academy Awards, for Best Actress in James Ivory's Howards End (1992) and Best Adapted Screenplay for Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995). Thompson has received numerous accolades including three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Grammy Awards, two Independent Spirit Awards, and six Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2018, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to drama.

Personal life

Thompson has stated that she feels Scottish, saying: "not only because I am half Scottish but also because I've spent half my life [in Scotland]".{{cite web |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/IT%27S+NANNY+McME%3b+Thespian+beauty+Emma+Thompson+was+gutted+when+it...-a0137436678 |title=It's Nanny McMe; Thespian beauty Emma Thompson was gutted when it took make-up artists only an hour to turn her into grotesque old granny Nanny McPhee for her latest movie. |work=Glasgow Daily Record |last=Fulton |first=Rick |date=12 October 2005 |access-date=27 June 2021 |via=thefreelibrary.com }}{{cite web |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/default_content/12504779.artists-driven-away-scots-suck-joy-life/ |title=Artists driven away because Scots 'suck the joy' out of life |work=The Herald |date=25 July 2009 |access-date=27 June 2021 |url-status=live |archive-date=9 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409095749/https://www.heraldscotland.com/default_content/12504779.artists-driven-away-scots-suck-joy-life/}} She frequently returns to Scotland and visits Dunoon in Argyll and Bute. She owns a home nearby, on the shore of Loch Eck.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/emma-thompson-interview|title=Emma Thompson On 'Cruella', Life After 60, & Her Many Decades Of Activism|first=Giles|last=Hattersley|work=British Vogue|date=7 May 2021|access-date=8 May 2021|archive-date=8 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508225844/https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/emma-thompson-interview|url-status=live}}

=Relationships=

Thompson's first husband was actor and director Kenneth Branagh, whom she met in 1987 while filming the television series Fortunes of War.{{cite news |title=One Pooped Pair |url=https://people.com/archive/one-pooped-pair-vol-44-no-16/ |first=Lydia |last=Denworth |date=16 October 1995 |newspaper=People |access-date=21 September 2013 |archive-date=8 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508112319/https://people.com/archive/one-pooped-pair-vol-44-no-16/ |url-status=live }} They married in 1989 and appeared in several films together, with Branagh often casting her in his productions.{{cite news |title=Arise Sir Ken: Kenneth Branagh profiled |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18438930 |date=16 June 2012 |work=BBC News |access-date=21 September 2013 |archive-date=5 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190305010033/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18438930 |url-status=live }} Dubbed a "golden couple" by the British press, their relationship received substantial media coverage. The pair attempted to keep the relationship private, refusing to be interviewed or photographed together.{{cite news |title=Kenneth Branagh Emma Thompson |url=https://ew.com/article/1993/06/25/kenneth-branagh-emma-thompson/ |first=Lisa |last=Schwarzbaum |date=25 June 1993 |newspaper=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=21 September 2013 |archive-date=8 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150808003938/http://www.ew.com/article/1993/06/25/kenneth-branagh-emma-thompson |url-status=live }} Thompson and Branagh announced their separation in September 1995. They cited their work schedules as the reason, but it later emerged that he was having an affair with actress Helena Bonham Carter.{{cite news |title=Emma Thompson Talks Kenneth Branagh's Alleged Affair With Helena Bonham Carter |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/12/emma-thompson-kenneth-branagh-affair_n_4261680.html |access-date=4 December 2015 |work=HuffPost |date=12 November 2013 |archive-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208152958/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/12/emma-thompson-kenneth-branagh-affair_n_4261680.html |url-status=live }}

File:Greg Wise.jpg, whom she met on the set of Sense and Sensibility]]

Thompson was living alone as her relationship with Branagh deteriorated and she became depressed. While filming Sense and Sensibility in 1995, she began a relationship with her co-star Greg Wise. On how she was able to overcome her depression, she stated, "Work saved me and Greg saved me. He picked up the pieces and put them together again." The couple have a daughter, Gaia, who was conceived via in vitro fertilisation when Thompson was 39.

Thompson and Wise married in Dunoon in 2003.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/scottish-politics/9459517/Scottish-independence-Emma-Thompson-attacks-separation.html |title=Scottish independence: Emma Thompson attacks separation |first=Simon |last=Johnson |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=7 August 2012 |access-date=21 September 2013 |archive-date=1 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001044420/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/scottish-politics/9459517/Scottish-independence-Emma-Thompson-attacks-separation.html |url-status=dead }} The family's permanent residence is in West Hampstead, London, on the same road as her childhood home. Also in 2003, Thompson and Wise informally adopted a Rwandan orphan and former child soldier named Tindyebwa Agaba. They met at a Refugee Council event when he was sixteen, and she invited him to spend Christmas at their home. "Slowly," Thompson has commented, "he became a sort of permanent fixture, came on holiday to Scotland with us, became part of the family."{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/2200167/Emma-Thompson-and-her-adopted-son-meet-Nelson-Mandela.html |title=Emma Thompson and her 'adopted' son meet Nelson Mandela |first=Anita |last=Singh |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=26 June 2008 |access-date=21 September 2013 |archive-date=1 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001045926/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/2200167/Emma-Thompson-and-her-adopted-son-meet-Nelson-Mandela.html |url-status=live }} Agaba became a British citizen in 2009.{{cite news |url=http://www.readersdigest.co.za/interview%20with%20emma%20thompson |title=Interview with Emma Thompson |newspaper=Reader's Digest |date=18 December 2009 |access-date=21 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130926095914/http://www.readersdigest.co.za/interview%20with%20emma%20thompson |archive-date=26 September 2013 }}

On 28 February 2020, Thompson and Wise were sworn in as honorary citizens of Venice and became legal residents of Italy. The couple had previously purchased a house in the city and indicated their intention to relocate to Italy permanently.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/01/emma-thompson-left-new-home-venice-self-isolate-mums-house-scotland/ |title=Emma Thompson left new home in Venice to self-isolate at 'mum's house in Scotland' |last1=Simpson |first1=Craig |last2=Gardner |first2=Bill |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=1 May 2020 |access-date=3 May 2020 |archive-date=2 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200502183251/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/01/emma-thompson-left-new-home-venice-self-isolate-mums-house-scotland/ |url-status=live}} They retain a home in West Hampstead.{{cite web |url=https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/29/emma-thompson-husband-move-venice-brexit-good-12324705/ |title=Emma Thompson and her husband move to Venice after Brexit and good on them |work=Metro |last=Karasin |first=Ekin |date=29 February 2020 |access-date=27 June 2021 }}

=Views and activism=

Thompson has said of her religious views:{{cite news |url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/acting-on-outspoken-beliefs/story-e6frg8n6-1111117752031 |title=Acting on outspoken beliefs |date=15 October 2008 |work=The Australian |access-date=23 February 2011 |first=Jane |last=Cornwell |archive-date=24 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131124131340/http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/acting-on-outspoken-beliefs/story-e6frg8n6-1111117752031 |url-status=live }}{{blockquote|I'm an atheist [...] I regard religion with fear and suspicion. It's not enough to say that I don't believe in God. I actually regard the system as distressing: I am offended by some of the things said in the Bible and the Qur'an and I refute them.}}

She is politically liberal and a supporter of the Labour Party; she told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show in 2010 that she had been a member of the party "all my life".{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8590095.stm |title=Emma Thompson on surviving fame |access-date=30 March 2010 |work=BBC News |date=28 March 2010 |archive-date=8 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508225838/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8590095.stm |url-status=live }} Thompson endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in both the 2015 and 2016 Labour Party leadership elections.{{cite news |last=McCrum |first=Robert |author-link=Robert McCrum |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/21/emma-thompson-flower-of-scotland-thorn-in-the-side |title=Emma Thompson: English rose. Flower of Scotland. And all-round thorn in the side |newspaper=The Guardian |date=21 September 2016 |access-date=15 November 2016 |archive-date=16 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116023002/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/21/emma-thompson-flower-of-scotland-thorn-in-the-side |url-status=live }} She has also expressed support for the now-defunct Women's Equality Party.{{cite news |last=Thompson |first=Emma |title=Letters: Emma Thompson 'I do not want to die before closing the pay gap' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/02/emma-thompson-i-do-not-want-to-die-before-closing-the-pay-gap |work=The Guardian |date=2 May 2016 |access-date=4 May 2016 |archive-date=3 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503112845/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/02/emma-thompson-i-do-not-want-to-die-before-closing-the-pay-gap |url-status=live }}

Thompson has been a campaigner since her youth. Since becoming a public figure she has regularly voiced her views and been involved in many issues, prompting criticism that she is overly outspoken. She has justified her assertiveness by saying, "[W]hat I feel is that we all need to speak up and a woman who has got a louder voice needs to shout very loudly indeed."{{cite news |first=Joann |last=Moorhead |title=Emma Thompson: Doth the lady protest too much? |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/emma-thompson-doth-the-lady-protest-too-much-1418926.html |access-date=3 December 2015 |work=The Independent |date=18 January 2009 |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412012102/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/emma-thompson-doth-the-lady-protest-too-much-1418926.html |url-status=live}}

File:Emma Thompson at climate march.jpg

She is particularly active in human rights work. She is chair of the Helen Bamber Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture,{{cite news |last=Saner |first=Emine |title=Emma Thompson |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/mar/08/emma-thompson-100-women |access-date=3 December 2015 |work=The Guardian |date=8 March 2011 |archive-date=4 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404040948/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/mar/08/emma-thompson-100-women |url-status=live }} a patron of the Refugee Council,{{cite news |title=Patrons |url=http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/about_refugee_council/patrons |access-date=3 December 2015 |website=Refugee Council |archive-date=5 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151205152939/http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/about_refugee_council/patrons |url-status=live }} and has a therapy room in her office for traumatised refugees. In 2017, she marched in support of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an Iranian-British charity worker who was held captive in Iran.{{cite news |title=Emma Thompson braves pneumonia to join march in support of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/25/emma-thompson-braves-pneumonia-join-march-support-nazanin-zaghari/ |access-date=16 November 2023 |work=The Telegraph |last=Turner |first=Camilla |date=25 November 2017 |url-status=live |archive-date=4 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304015309/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/25/emma-thompson-braves-pneumonia-join-march-support-nazanin-zaghari/}} Thompson is a patron of the Elton John AIDS Foundation,{{cite web |url=http://ejaf.com/about/our-patrons/ |title=Our Patrons |work=Elton John AIDS Foundation |access-date=27 March 2014 |archive-date=12 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012055947/http://ejaf.com/about/our-patrons/ |url-status=dead }} and Time magazine named her a "European Hero" in 2009 in recognition of "her work to highlight the plight of AIDS sufferers in Africa".

She is an active environmentalist and a supporter of Greenpeace; in January 2009, as part of her campaign against climate change, she and three other members of the organisation bought land near the village of Sipson to deter the building of a third runway for Heathrow Airport.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7825169.stm |title=Protesters buy up Heathrow land |work=BBC News |location=London |date=13 January 2009 |access-date=18 January 2009 |archive-date=14 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114190054/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7825169.stm |url-status=live }} In August 2014, Thompson and her daughter Gaia went on a Greenpeace "Save the Arctic" expedition to raise awareness of the dangers of drilling for oil.{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/13/emma-thompson-different-patch-life-50s |title=Emma Thompson: 'It's a different patch of life, your 50s' |work=The Guardian |date=13 September 2014 |first=Emma |last=Brockes |access-date=26 September 2014 |archive-date=17 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140917015325/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/13/emma-thompson-different-patch-life-50s |url-status=live }} She narrated The Real News Network's The Doubt Machine: Inside the Koch Brothers' War on Climate Science, a documentary short about Koch Industries and its efforts to discredit climate research,{{cite web |url=http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2930 |title=The Doubt Machine: Inside the Koch Brothers' War on Climate Science |website=The Real News Network |access-date=2 November 2016 |archive-date=4 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104012614/http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2930 |url-status=dead}} which was released on 31 October 2016. She supported the London Extinction Rebellion rally against climate change in 2019, although she received some criticism for having flown {{Convert|5400|mi|km|abbr=}} to attend it.{{cite web|url=https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/19/emma-thompson-flew-5400-miles-join-climate-change-protest-9262552/ |title=Emma Thompson flew 5,400 miles to join climate change protest |last=Middleton |first=Lucy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505173408/https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/19/emma-thompson-flew-5400-miles-join-climate-change-protest-9262552/ |archive-date=5 May 2019 |work=Metro |date=19 April 2019 |access-date=5 May 2019}}{{cite journal |last1=Gössling |first1=Stefan |date=19 October 2019 |title=Celebrities, air travel, and social norms |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336666551 |access-date=1 January 2021 |journal=Annals of Tourism Research |volume=79 |page=102775 |doi=10.1016/j.annals.2019.102775 |s2cid=211419517 |quote=This also became an issue when actor Emma Thompson flew from Los Angeles to London to join a protest of the Extinction Rebellion movement (Mirror 2019). |archive-date=8 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508225908/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336666551_Celebrities_air_travel_and_social_norms |url-status=live }} She is also an ambassador for the Galapagos Conservation Trust.{{cite news |url=http://galapagosconservation.org.uk/ambassadors/ |newspaper=Galapagos Conservation Trust |title=Ambassadors |access-date=23 December 2014 |archive-date=24 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190224175044/https://galapagosconservation.org.uk/ambassadors/ |url-status=live }}

In 2010, Thompson criticised people who use "sloppy language". Speaking with the Radio Times, she said: "I went to give a talk at my old school and the girls were all doing their 'likes' and 'innits?' and 'it ain'ts', which drives me insane. I told them 'Just don't do it. Because it makes you sound stupid and you're not stupid.' There is the necessity to have two languages – one that you use with your mates and the other that you need in any official capacity."{{Cite news|date=28 September 2010|title=Actress Emma Thompson attacks use of sloppy language|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11420737|access-date=10 February 2022|url-status=live |archive-date=11 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411163850/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11420737}}{{Cite web|title=Thompson's war on sloppy speech|url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/thompsons-war-on-sloppy-speech/26684741.html|access-date=10 February 2022|website=Irish Independent|date=28 September 2010|url-status=live |archive-date=1 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231101155022/https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/thompsons-war-on-sloppy-speech/26684741.html}}

On February 24, 2024, Thompson supported Ukraine by appearing in a video with 29 other world stars to support Ukraine against Russia.{{Cite web |date=February 24, 2024|via=YouTube |title=#StandWithUkraine - UNITED24 : 30 world stars support Ukraine against Russia (2024)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEZXwAWqMwE|access-date=April 9, 2025}}

References

External links

{{IMDb name}}
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[https://web.archive.org/web/20160310005836/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba1c2f296 Emma Thompson] at the British Film Institute{{better source needed|reason=Help request: a live link can be searched for at https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/search/expert - if available, replace the archive URL with the live link. Or if none found, remove this 'better source needed' template. | date=October 2023}}
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{{Screenonline name|476881}}
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|title = Awards for Emma Thompson

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{{Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress}}

{{London Film Critics Circle Award for British Supporting Actress of the Year}}

{{Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay}}

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Category:1959 births

Category:20th-century atheists

Category:20th-century British actresses

Category:20th-century British women writers

Category:21st-century atheists