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  • Emma Thompson on Her Dear Friend Alan Rickman

    The world lost one of its best actors on Thursday when Alan Rickman passed away at the age of 69.

    Tributes have been pouring out from those who knew him, worked with him, and loved him. Emma Thompson did all three, and she has penned a touching tribute to the late actor.

    In it, she calls him the “ultimate ally” and says she learned a lot from him.

    “Alan was my friend and so this is hard to write because I have just kissed him goodbye. What I remember most in this moment of painful leave-taking is his humor, intelligence, wisdom and kindness. His capacity to fell you with a look or lift you with a word. The intransigence which made him the great artist he was — his ineffable and cynical wit, the clarity with which he saw most things, including me, and the fact that he never spared me the view. I learned a lot from him,” Thompson said in a statement.

    “He was the finest of actors and directors I couldn’t wait to see what he was going to do with his face next. I consider myself hugely privileged to have worked with him so many times and to have been directed by him. He was the ultimate ally. In life, art and politics. I trusted him absolutely. He was, above all things, a rare and unique human being and we shall not see his like again.”

    Thompson and Rickman appeared in many films together, including Love Actually, Sense and Sensibility, and of course, the Harry Potter films.

    The world will truly miss Alan Rickman.

  • Emma Thompson Serves Up Four-Letter Words Over Hollywood Sexism

    Emma Thompson is not impressed with how Hollywood handles women, especially women of a certain age. And that age is not nearly as high as you might think. Add to that the expectations and “beauty standards” that actresses are expected to meet, and Emma Thompson is actually a little pissed off.

    “I think it’s still completely shit actually,” Thompson candidly informed Radio Times. “I don’t think there’s any appreciable improvement and I think that for women, the question of how they are supposed to look is worse than it was even when I was young. So, no, I am not impressed at all.”

    A classic example of how what Emma Thompson is so fired up about works in Hollywood was brought to light this year by Maggie Gyllenhaal.

    “I’m 37,” Gyllenhaal said, “and I was told recently I was too old to play the lover of a man who was 55. It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made me feel angry, and then it made me laugh.”

    The practice of getting younger actresses to play older roles runs contrary to what had long been the classic wisdom in film and theatre. Used to be, you got an actor to play down in age. The logic was that this person had already been through that part of life and could represent it accurately and with honesty.

    But now Hollywood swings the other way, putting looks above experience and skill. Story lines pairing younger actresses with older leading men are quite common.

    Emma Stone recently addressed this. Stone herself has been the beneficiary of such castings. But she won’t be young forever.

    “It’s rampant in Hollywood and it’s definitely been that way for a long time, both culturally and in movies,” Stone says. “But in Irrational Man, the film is contingent upon the age difference; the movie is about that disparity. And when I did Magic in the Moonlight, Colin Firth and I talked about the gap which was huge, absolutely, because he was born the same year as my dad,” Stone says.

    As for Thompson, her latest film, The Legend of Barney Thompson, casts her as older. Thompson is only 56, but was cast as a 77-year-old woman.

    “It would be really nice to get someone who is actually 77 to play her,” Thompson said, “but it’s a wildly comic role and I couldn’t resist.”

    The occasional role cast younger is one thing, but Hollywood seems to have a deep-seated issue with older actresses now.

    “When I was younger,” Emma Thompson says, “I really did think we were on our way to a better world and when I look at it now, it is in a worse state than I have known it, particularly for women and I find that very disturbing and sad.”

    “So I get behind as many young female performers as I can and actually a lot of the conversations I have with them are about exactly the fact that we are facing and writing about the same things and nothing has changed, and that some forms of sexism and unpleasantness to women have become more entrenched and indeed more prevalent.”

  • Emma Thompson Talks Films And Screenwriting

    Emma Thompson recently opened up about her screenwriting process, favorite actors and the difference between men and women in films.

    Thompson admitted that she is a big fan of Clint Eastwood and said that she grew up watching him act in movies. She claimed that she and her father would watch westerns and that the shows rubbed off on her as an actress.

    “I grew up on westerns,” she said “I was very much influenced by that form.”

    She said that the films also influenced the types of roles she takes.

    Thompson said that it can be hard to find some types of film roles because many writers feel like women can’t play certain roles that men should play and vice versa.

    “Our brains are not [all that] different,” but “essentially the same,” she said. “The Venus/Mars thing is so awful, and writers really have to come to terms with the fact that our brains are essentially the same.”

    She said that there are differences in the way men and women handle certain roles and that these differences are the most clear when it comes to comedies.

    “I think you need a punch line when you are a boy, because men’s jokes are essentially something that goes on and on, leading to an ejaculation,” she said. “You have to react at the end. You have to laugh at the end.”

    She added, “Women’s comedy is more circular,” with little laughs here and there and sometimes a big laugh.” Thompson concluded that the approach to humor “goes hand in hand with our sexual, our orgasmic nature.‎”

    Is addition to acting, Thompson is also a screenwriter and says that she considers all of the above when writing stories and plots of her own. She also said that she often writes roles for specific people.

    “I often write a character with an actor in mind, and then never get them for the project”, she joked. “Sometimes it’s very helpful,” even if it is a dead actor.‎

  • Tom Hanks Becomes Subject Of Golden Globes Joke [Video]

    Tom Hanks somehow found a way to enter into the Golden Globes introduction that was given by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler last night, and what Poehler said probably did not make much sense to the viewers at home.

    The two dynamic queens of comedy excelled as host of the awards show once again, and were welcomed with big laughs throughout the show. They took the opportunity to poke fun at a number of a-list celebrities, but it was all in good fun.

    The performance of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler at the Golden Globe Awards in 2013 was given such high praise that they were invited to return for next year’s show in addition to this year.

    This year was no different, and the two actresses who have both been nominated for Golden Globes in the past delivered with great success.

    During the opening monologue, Amy Poehler took the opportunity to attempt to make a joke at Tom Hanks’ expense. She poked fun in one of the most amusing ways one could imagine, and it even gave the veteran actor a bit of a chuckle.

    She switched the “a” and the “o” in his name, proceeding to call him Tam Honks, while in the same sentence correctly pronouncing the names of Chiwetel Ejiofer and Lupita Nyong’o for their nominations in 12 Years A Slave, saying afterward that she thought she would mess that one up somehow.

    Two of Tom Hanks’ films are up for awards this year including Captain Phillips, which he was nominated for Best Actor for and Saving Mr. Banks, a film that gave Emma Thompson a nomination.

    While fans at home might think that she was just messing around or possibly giving Tom Hanks a new nickname, it was reported that a German Twitter account with the same name was already in place before Poehler’s slip of the tongue.

    The ironic part of the Twitter account is the fact that it is host to a picture of Tom Hanks in his iconic role of Forrest Gump. This makes people wonder, is that Tom Hanks on Twitter or who is operating the Twitter handle?

    Tom Hanks took in Amy Poehler’s odd joke in with a good laugh and a look of confusion. Will he be getting any awards this season? He has plenty of opportunities with Captain Phillips, although he lost the award to Matthew McConaughey last night.

    Image via Youtube

  • ‘Saving Mr. Banks’ Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson Shine

    Saving Mr. Banks showcases both Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson as they help tell the story of Walt Disney and his beloved and final film, Mary Poppins.

    Walt Disney’s daughters loved the original Mary Poppins book, so their father promised them he would bring the nanny to life on the big screen. He had no idea the obstacle that was P.L. Travers, the author of the book. She was dead set against his making a film from the book–saying he was going to trivialize her tale. The two argued over this for years until finally–and because she needed the money–Travers conceded.

    Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers are the perfect combination, according to a review from The Daily Mail. She is called ferocious to his accolade of ‘majestic.’

    The artistic differences Disney and Travers argued over come to life brilliantly on the big screen in Saving Mr. Banks. And even though the script isn’t completely accurate, it is certainly quite entertaining.

    Check out the trailer for the film that opens on December 20th.

    This Twitter fan can’t wait to see the movie.

    Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson may get rave reviews from The Daily Mail, but the film itself doesn’t get such high acclaims. The review alludes to mistakes like too many flashbacks. It even hints at the Disney Corporation using one of its founder’s most beloved tales as a means to make money.

    Will you be checking out Saving Mr. Banks when it hits theaters on December 20th? Do you fear it might ruin your beloved memories of Mary Poppins or do you think it might heighten your love of the Disney film instead?

    Image via Facebook

  • Angelina Jolie Attends Awards Show With Brad Pitt

    Angelina Jolie was accompanied by both husband Brad Pitt and 12-year-old son Maddox when she accepted an award at the 2013 Governors Awards in Hollywood on Saturday.

    “My family, my love, your love and support make everything possible,” she said. “Mad, and your brothers and sisters, there is no greater honor than being your mom.”

    The youngest recipient to receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, Jolie’s humanitarian efforts have taken her–and often her family, too–around the world.

    Jolie lost her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, to ovarian cancer back in 2007, but she wasn’t far from her mind on Saturday.

    “My mom loved art,” Jolie said. “She wanted for [brother James Haven] and I to have the life of an artist. She believed nothing would mean anything if you didn’t lead a life that was of use to others.”

    Angelina Jolie’s father, Jon Voight, sat with Brad Pitt and Maddox at the awards ceremony. And while that was likely heartwarming for the actress (she and her dad made amends several years back after many years of estrangement) she would no doubt have loved to have her mother there to see her given this prestigious award.

    Without a mom there to express her pride, friend Emma Thompson did so instead.

    “It comes from a very genuine place with Angie,” Thompson told PEOPLE. “That is the important thing. She has been very good at keeping things in the headlines that would all too easily slip away.”

    In addition to Thompson’s praises, the presence of Brad Pitt and son Maddox at the 2013 Governors Awards must have made Angelina Jolie realize just how blessed she is. She continues her work as a humanitarian so that those less fortunate will know the joy of blessings, too.

    Image via Wikimedia

  • Helena Bonham Carter Forgiven By Emma Thompson

    Helena Bonham Carter, the talented and quirky star of Dark Shadows, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Alice in Wonderland, The King’s Speech, and several Harry Potter films, has been the subject of recent media attention due to a past relationship.

    Emma Thompson, who was once married to Kenneth Branagh, recently spoke about the reason for the deterioration of her their six year marriage that resulted in a 1995 divorce. According to Oscar winner Thompson, Branagh was embroiled in an affair with Carter before Carter’s present relationship with Tim Burton.

    Emma Thompson is not the type to hold a grudge and said, “all blood under the bridge. You can’t hold on to anything like that.” Known for her many talents such as acting, writing, and activism, Thompson will now also be well-known for her forgiveness. “It’s pointless. I haven’t got the energy for it. Helena and I made our peace years and years ago,” Thompson said.

    Both actresses have a legion of admirers and share many noticeable similarities as Thompson recently noted when speaking with the UK’s Sunday Times.

    “Oh, we are [alike], being slightly mad and a bit fashion-challenged. Perhaps that’s why Ken loved us both. She’s a wonderful woman, Helena,” Thompson added.

    Though the grief is in the past, Thompson explained how she had become strong in handling despair through the whole ordeal. “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,” she said.

    [Image Via Wikimedia Commons]

  • Emma Thompson Says She Forgives Helena Bonham Carter

    Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sir Kenneth Branagh all have the “Harry Potter” films in common, but many people don’t realize that they have another, darker tie to one another. Now, Emma Thompson has opened up about the end of her marriage to Branagh, and how she has forgiven the woman who came between them.

    Thompson and Branagh were considered the Golden Couple of British Hollywood in the ’90s and seemed to have it all; however, when Branagh met Helena Bonham Carter in 1994 while they were filming “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”, the two began an affair that would ultimately ruin his marriage. By 1995, he and Thompson had split, leaving him free to continue his relationship with Bonham Carter in the open. Nearly 20 years later, Thompson says she doesn’t have the energy to host negative feelings towards Bonham Carter.

    “As Mike Nicholls [the film and theater director] once said, and I’ve picked it up because I think it’s such a wonderful phrase – all blood under the bridge. You can’t hold on to anything like that. I just think… pfft,” she told The Sunday Times. “It’s pointless. I haven’t got the energy for it. Helena and I made our peace years and years ago.”

    These days, Thompson is happily married to actor/producer Greg Wise, but she says she does wonder about monogamy and believes it is an odd place for humans to find themselves in.

    “I do sometimes wonder about whether there are alternatives, and about whether our fury and rage and disbelief and horror about infidelity is quite realistic,” she said. “I, of course, have got the T-shirt, so I understand the feelings very well, but I think as I get older and think about long-term relationships, I do see that they can change.”