Kristin Scott Thomas faced tragedy when she lost two fathers by the age of 11. Now, she reclaims that heartbreak with her directorial debut, My Mother’s Wedding.
“I wanted to integrate my experiences as a child,” Scott Thomas, 65, exclusively shares in the new issues of Us Weekly. “Every single profile that has been written about me, contains a paragraph about the tragedy of my childhood and I want to kind of reclaim that as an adult and as a grandmother. And I wanted to be able to say, ‘Well, yeah, I did have a tragic childhood, but look where I am now?’ And I think that’s what I ‘m trying to say in this film, is that terrible things can happen, but don’t hang on to that. Just move forward. That’s what I’m trying to express in a light hearted way.”
Scott Thomas lost her father, a Royal Navy pilot, in service when she was just 6 years old. Her mother later remarried another Royal Navy pilot, who would go on to die in service five years later. That experience — along with the public scrutiny that went with it — led Kristin to write, direct and star in My Mother’s Wedding. The family dramedy follows three sisters (Scarlett Johansson, Emily Beecham and Sienna Miller) who begrudgingly come together for the third wedding of their twice-widowed mother (Scott Thomas).
My Mother’s Wedding is in theaters now. Here, Scott Thomas tells Us more about how she drew from her own tragedy, the experience of working with fellow strong female actors and more:
Us Weekly: How did you choose which parts of the film to keep authentic to your life, and what to fictionalize?
Kristin Scott Thomas: The only bits that are really true are the bits that are in animate sequences. Those are my memories, which I sort of gave to the film. The rest is kind of invented. So, it was really great, actually, to be able to take these events that I experienced as a small person and then create another story around it. Not my story, a different story. That was really exciting, to make a different world.
Us: Why was it important to make this such a female-driven project?
KST: What I’m examining is the importance of men in our lives, specifically father figures. I think that’s what I was looking at without lecturing about it. Just to say, “Look, you really are important,” because we talk about motherhood and things like this, but it’s also important to understand the absence and presence of a masculine element in women’s lives.” I wanted to have a look at that.
Us: How would you describe each of the daughters when we first meet them in the story?
KST: I always like to say that the three daughters are in romantic disarray. It’s catastrophic, their romantic lives, and they’re sort of slightly miffed that their mother, in her 60s, is having the time of her life. You know, she’s super happy, and everything’s going great, and then they are a little disappointed in her choice because they feel like he’s not quite as good as their father was. So you know, “Why is she taking a downgrade?”
Us: Is there one daughter you identify most with?
KST: To be honest, we’re magpies, actors are magpies. We take a little bit here, a little bit there, we steal this, we steal that. And I think that a lot of the characters that I wrote are probably quite revealing about me. But I wouldn’t like to say where or how! [laughs] And [my] character of Diana, the mother, is my goal as a mother. I’d love to be that sort of brave and kind and wise.
Us: Why were Emily, Sienna and Scarlett the right three actresses to play your on screen daughters in this film?
KST: I’ll start with Emily. I’ve been watching her for a few years. She is an extraordinary presence on a film and she’s such an original/ There is no one else like her around. She’s got this incredible, sort of, transparency, to her face. You can see every thought just floating past like clouds. She’ really is amazing and very sensitive and very creative. Sienna, for me, as I was writing it, I said, “This has to be Sienna Miller.” Because I know Sienna would get what it’ slike to be an actress in the spotlight and be amused to spear it, somehow. I knew she’d like that, even though I’d never met her. So I was pleased when I asked her to do it and she said yes straight away. And then Scarlett, Scarlett was a big shot in the dark because I was looking for someone who had authority and vulnerability. …I wanted someone who could play a strength of character and a determination and vulnerability. And Scarlett, I just thought, “She can do that. She’s not English. But She can play English! So I rang her up.!
Us: This is the third time Scarlett has played your daughter. How has your relationship with her changed over the years now that she’s a wife [to husband Colin Jost] and mother?
KST: It has, because I first met her when she was 12. She was a little girl when I met her and now a super powerful woman with a wonderful career and a beautiful family. She’s amazing. She’s really great. She’s quite a force of character, but what’s really great about her, which I really appreciated, because it could have easily gone in any direction, is what a team player she is, and how she very quickly just fell in with everybody else and got on with it. It was great.
Us: You also reunited with your Four Weddings and a Funeral costar and on screen brother, James Fleet, who plays your new husband. Did anybody make any jokes about you marrying your sibling?
KST: No, thank goodness! I’m glad about that. He’s great. James Fleet, he really is. And he played my husband in another theater play that we did many years ago. He’s always been in my mind.
Us: Speaking of Four Weddings and a Funeral, that film, like My Mother’s Wedding, really balances marriage and love and comedy with tragedy very well. What did that film teach you in preparation for this one?
KST: I think what I learned from something like Four Weddings, is something sad and something funny can marry, can go very, very well together in a story and that one validates the other. I think that’s what I was trying to capture. For instance, as far as my character is concerned in Four Weddings, the moment when she declares her love for the character played b y Hugh Grant, that’s a funny, sad moment. And everyone’s having a lovely time and then suddenly the carpet is whipped out from under your feet. And, “Oh no, this is really sad!” So I love being spun around as an audience member. I love being surprised by something veering from comfortably amusing to heartbreakingly sad. That’s what I really love.
Us: I know you’ve met King Charles III a few times. Did you ever speak to him about how your Four Weddings character marries him?
KST: No, I haven’t — maybe I should bring that up next time!
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