Now that the dust has settled...
Minty Clinch
Actress Kristin Scott Thomas is the toast of two cities. She found fame in London with "A Handful of Dust", while in Paris she juggles stardom and motherhood and finds that more than just a handful.
At our first meeting in London she is in English mode, brown hair swinging on her shoulders, denim skirt swirling around her calves. Kristin Scott Thomas is as well spoken as you'd expect a naval officer's daughter with a convent education to be. The 28-year-old Dorset-born actress is Lady Brenda Last, the irresistible aristocratic adulteress she played so superbly in A Handful of Dust.
Surprisingly, her role in Charles Sturridge's interpretation of Evelyn Waugh's novel was Kristin's first in a British film. Now she's making the most of her success both here and in Paris, where the Swiss-made film Le Meridien has played to art-house crowds. She is currently shooting a film version of Graham Greene's Tenth Man, playing opposite Anthony Hopkins.
Kristin is a confirmed Francophile and has lived in Paris for the past nine years. When I next meet her she is subtly changed: tight black jeans, sinister dark glasses, hair swept up, accentuating the curve of her perfect cheekbones. She is every centimetre the chic Parisienne, though the image falters slightly as she chatters excitedly about her recent appearance on Wogan. She had been overawed by fellow guest Brooke Shields: "So beautiful, so tall and so down to earth... I was terribly nervous and came on like an electric mixer. I really must calm down."
For Kristin there is a very special satisfaction in this triumphant return to London - the city that nearly destroyed her dreams of acting. She left London's Central School of Speech and Drama after just one year, disgusted by the "blinkered attitudes" of the teachers. At a loss as to what to do, she took an au pair job in Paris. This, ironically, was her first step to success. Her employer had friends in the arts and the good sense to encourage Kristin to go back to drama school. Her dream began to seem an attainable ambition.
At drama classes in Paris she met François Olivennes, who was to become her husband. "God knows what he was doing there. He was supposed to be studying to be an obstetric surgeon! It wasn't love at first sight. Before François my boyfriends were beautiful but thick. François wasn't nearly as glamorous, but he was much cleverer."
Her relationship with François opened up new possibilities. Kristin found herself in the world of Parisian intellectuals. "I discovered all sorts of things that had been missing before. In England, being ambitious is sin number one. In France, it's accepted that you have to go out and get what you want." For Kristin this meant gaining her French drama qualification and a succession of film roles - including the rich bitch in Prince's Under the Cherry Moon.
After living together for several years - in a large house with several of François' high-powered friends - Kristin and François decided to marry. "We wanted to have children. It was as simple as that."
The ceremony took place in the garden of Kristin's family home and was conducted jointly by a rabbi (François is Jewish) and a Catholic priest. "We stayed overnight to clear up. Then François took the plane back to Paris and I went to London to audition for A Handful of Dust. We spent the first week of our marriage apart."
And now Kristin is celebrating more than film success. By the time the cameras rolled on A Handful of Dust she was three months pregnant, which inspired panic in the production office and ingenuity in the wardrobe department. However, all was well and daughter Hannah was duly born in May, though not with François in attendance. "I'd have liked him to deliver Hannah but he's not qualified yet. I went to self-hypnosis classes which ere marvellous because they kept me calm. I loved the contractions, although I feel silly, even guilty, saying it. It does - it did - hurt a lot and it was a long labour - 14 hours - and I did have an epidural, but I loved the feeling of giving birth. I can't wait to do it again!"
Five days later, Kristin was back at work promoting her two films. Five weeks later she was back in shape due, she claims, to breastfeeding at the beginning before her professional commitments forcer her to hire a nanny. A few months later, she is exhausted and frustrated. "It's difficult, because I haven't really been able to be Mummy - to go away to the country and look after my baby myself. Nor have I been able to make the most of being hailed as a bright discovery. Looking after a baby is a full-time job, and I didn't realise that at all."
Despite her difficulties, Kristin is convinced that motherhood will add depth to her acting. She wishes now, for example, that she could make A Handful of Dust again, particularly the scenes dealing with the death of Lady Brenda's son. "I thought I could imagine that a child dying is the most awful thing in the world, but now that I have my own, it's stomach-churning just to think about it. As an actor, you find experiences to draw on that match your role, so something as fundamental as being a mother is bound to count."
Kristin and François now have their own house in Paris and a place on the Normandy coast between Deauville and Honfleur. Kristin described herself as an excellent cook. "I think I learned through greed and I'm much better than my mother-in law. She's dreadful. I think it's a myth that French women are such good cooks. They're much more likely to go out to smart restaurants." She and François share the chores. "He's very liberated, quite ready to do the washing-up, which I'm not. Yes, and change the nappies. He loves that."
But does Kristin's storm of success threaten to cloud the domestic idyll? Not at all, she says. "François loves me to work because he loves my work. He's much more of a film buff than I am. Perhaps he is a frustrated actor, but I'm sure he knew he'd never get anywhere. Oh dear, he'll be cross if I say that. Anyway he's a much better surgeon and he can't complain about my being away because he's always on duty. Babies don't wait."
