How the quintessential "English rose" landed the most coveted role in Hollywood
Michele Manelis
Image is as vital to an actress as a perfect body is to a model - one can't function without the other. In the case of Kristin Scott Thomas, the love-hate relationship with her persona as a sophisticated, hat-wearing, upper-class, even Dietrich-esque ice-queen sticks to her like a second skin. In short, this 38-year-old mother of two has had to co-exist with the idea of being "a very British woman".
"Yeah, it's an image," she says, rolling her eyes. "I mean, it's as good as any other image, I suppose. I guess the idea of being a brainy, upper-class beauty is better than the alternative."
After her Oscar-nominated role in The English Patient, Scott Thomas managed to clinch the much-coveted role of Annie MacLean in The Horse Whisperer, based on the best-selling novel by Nicholas Evans, and directed by and co-starring Robert Redford. Scott Thomas plays the hard-nosed editor of a fashion magazine (loosely based on former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown), whose life falls apart after her daughter and the horse she's riding are seriously injured when they're hit by a truck. Trapped in a loveless marriage (to Sam Neill), Annie falls for cowboy Redford after hiring him to treat the horse.
Scott Thomas says she was surprised when she landed the part, despite her Oscar nomination. "It's true that I'd never gone after anything in my life like I did that role in The English Patient," she says, "but The Horse Whisperer was a part that most actresses wanted. It was a very 'hot' thing to get, but I didn't think I had a chance because it's a big American film. I thought any lobbying I could do would be pathetic and small-scale compared to what an American actress could do. An Oscar nomination isn't necessarily going to do it, you know. I couldn't just leap on a horse, ride over to Redford and say, "I'm your Annie.'"
Sitting in the suite of her New York hotel overlooking Central Park, Scott Thomas is casually dressed in a navy-blue silk Calvin Klein suit, striped T-shirt and runners. Even more beautiful in person than on screen, her striking aquamarine eyes sometimes give the impression that she's laughing at you, rather than with you. She exudes a quiet intelligence and self-deprecating charm, but apparently it was her sharp wit and wordly air that persuaded Redford to choose her over many other big-name actresses.
"The body of my work is usually to do with dark, represses, miserable women," she says, laughing. "And I liked that the first impression of Annie is of a hard selfish, power-grabbing witch, and the journey she goes through reveals her to be someone quite different. She's hidden that side. It's all buried underneath." There's the felling that Scott Thomas, too, keeps a lot bubbling beneath the surface. "I do like to play a little under-the-rug," she offers.
So, how does such a guarded celebrity function in a media-saturated world, with its relentless obsession with fame? Scott Thomas, who gives the impression of being more cerebral than instinctive, has a practical approach. "I haven't suffered from it, really. I mean, sometimes it's a little difficult because people have a preconceived idea of who you are before you even get there and that can be a bit wearing. Then you feel that you have to behave better. But if I'm in a bad mood and people come up to me and say, 'Are you Kristin Scott Thomas?' I just say no," she says. Ironically, this "English rose" ("I hate that description") has not lived in the UK for 18 years. "I moved to Paris when I was very young and not particularly at ease with myself," she says. "I'm beginning to think slightly better of myself nowadays, but still, every time you start a new job, it's always the most terrifying thing in the world. If you suffer from low self-esteem, you buy all these books to help yourself get happier. This has been a problem for me."
Although the life she has with husband Francois Oliviennes (sic) and their two children (Hannah, eight, and Joseph, six) seems idyllic, the road that led there was rocky. The eldest of five children, Scott Thomas was raised in a village in Dorset that she has described as "the middle of nowhere". Her father, a Royal Navy pilot, died in a plane crash when she was five; six years later, her stepfather was killed the same way. Clearly not a subject open for discussion, she has said of her early years: "I resent articles that describe my childhood as tragic. It wasn't a bed of roses and it wasn't a hellhole. You just get on with it."
At 18 she moved to London to go to drama school, before heading to Paris, where she worked as an au pair, attended drama classes and met her future husband. It was the Artist Formerly Known As Prince who took her under his wing and gave her the lead role in his movie Under The Cherry Moon. "I'd been doing a play in Burgundy about the end of the world and two days later I was in a Paris hotel, dancing with Prince! It was so peculiar to be thrown in at the deep end like that," she says. "I remember people saying to me, as they do with every film, 'This is going to be huge. You're going to be a star after this movie.' But you can't take it too seriously. Acting can really do your head in. It's a dangerous sport, not just because of the rejection, but because you go to dark places in your mind that aren't always particularly comfortable."
Getting work has never been a problem for Scott Thomas. She appeared in a number of French films and stage productions, eventually landing a part in Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon. But it wasn't until she played the elegant friend of Hugh Grant in Four Weddings And A Funeral that she caught the world's attention. This was followed by a blink-and-you'll-miss-it turn in Mission Impossible.
When it's suggested her aloof image would be ruined if her fans knew Sam Neill describes her as one of the funniest women he's ever met, Scott Thomas brightens. "I can be quite amusing at a dinner party. But I don't stand there telling joke after joke, you know!"
Laughter seems to have helped Scott Thomas get through the difficult moments in her career. Having done her share of nude scenes, she says: "It takes a lot of energy, concentration and psyching. But it's not a question of the way I look, the aesthetics, because I'm beyond that really. It's like being at the doctor's. And, of course, I love nipping around the set with no clothes on," she laughs sarcastically. "You know, I'm so happy, happy, happy!"
