Emma Thompson has been in the acting business for quite a long time, and has taken on a slew of different movie roles during that time. Recently, the actress appeared on the Norwegion-Swedish show Skavlan to promote Beauty and the Beast, revealing there was one memorable movie role she almost quit on the spot. While on the set of Brideshead Revisited one producer said something about another actress' body, leading Emma Thompson to come to her aid. Thompson said:
There was a wonderful actress in a film I did called Brideshead Revisited and the producer said to her, 'Will you lose some weight?' And she was absolutely exquisite. I said to them, 'If you speak to her about this again, on any level, I will leave this picture. You are never to do that.
So, what we can take from this quote is that Emma Thompson has always been a plucky lass, and had no problems whatsoever with telling a Brideshead Revisited producer off when she had some unkind things to say about her coworker's size. She also has rather a lot of class while telling the story, giving us details about what happened on the set without outing the rather rude producer or the poor actress who had to deal with the comments. Brideshead Revisited had several memorable ladies on the set, including Hayley Atwell, Felicity Jones, Anna Madeley, Greta Scachi and Sarah Crowden. She doesn't specify whether it was one of the newcomer or veteran actress who dealt with the drama, but the comments were enough that Emma Thompson nearly left the movie.
The story came up when Emma Thompson was speaking about never feeling desirous to live in Hollywood, as she feels too old and too fat every time she goes to the California city. This led her to open up about the Brideshead Revisited experience and the daily issues women are having to deal with in relation to their weight to stay in the movie business. She also noted:
It's evil what's happening out there. And it's getting worse... It's so tedious and it goes on and on.
It's safe to say that there are becoming roles out there for women of different shapes and sizes. It's also safe to say that a lot of the major action films are focusing more on training and being in shape rather than being rail thin. But being a certain size certainly still persists in a lot of corners of celebrity---and it's not always the ladies who have to deal with the drama. We all know the camera adds ten pounds, but most of us also know that skinny doesn't always equate to healthy. Emma Thompson, at least, seems to make it a point to champion that.
Hopefully there was less drama on the set of Beauty and the Beast, where Emma Thompson plays Mrs. Potts. Catch it in theaters now, and see what leading ladies are heading to theaters in the coming months with our movies premiere schedule.
