Kristin Scott Thomas
Scott Thomas at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival
Born	Kristin A. Scott Thomas (1960-05-24) 24 May 1960 (age 51) Redruth, Cornwall, England, UK
Nationality	British, French
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1984–present
Spouse	François Olivennes (1987–2005)

Kristin A. Scott Thomas,¹ OBE (born 24 May 1960) is an English actress who has also acquired French nationality. She gained international recognition in the 1990s for her roles in Bitter Moon, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The English Patient.

Since the 1980s, she has also worked in French cinema in films such as the thriller Tell No One and Philippe Claudel's I've Loved You So Long. She has lived in France since she was 19, has brought up her three children in Paris, and says she considers herself more French than British.² She was made a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 2005.

Early life

Scott Thomas was born in Redruth, Cornwall. Her mother, Deborah (née Hurlbatt), was brought up in Hong Kong and Africa, and studied drama before marrying Scott Thomas's father.³ Her father, Lieutenant Commander Simon Scott Thomas, was a pilot for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm who died in a flying accident in 1964.⁴⁵⁶ She is the elder sister of actress Serena Scott Thomas, the niece of Admiral Sir Richard Thomas (who was a Black Rod in the House of Lords), and a more distant great-great-niece of Captain Scott, the ill-fated explorer who lost the race to the South Pole.

Scott Thomas was brought up as a Roman Catholic.⁷⁸ Her childhood home was in Trent, Dorset, England. Her mother remarried, to another Royal Navy pilot, who also died in a flying accident, six years after the death of her father. Scott Thomas was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and St. Antony's Leweston School for Girls in Sherborne, Dorset, both independent schools. On leaving school she moved to Hampstead, London, and worked in a department store. She then began training to be a drama teacher at the Central School of Speech and Drama. On being told she would never be a good enough actress, she left at the age of 19 to work as an au pair in Paris.⁹ Speaking French fluently, she studied acting at the École nationale supérieure des arts et techniques du théâtre (ENSATT) in Paris, and at age 25 on graduation, was cast opposite pop star Prince as Mary Sharon, a French heiress, in the 1986 film Under The Cherry Moon.

Career

Scott Thomas played the central role of an unfaithful wife in the 1996 film The English Patient. During the 1990s, she appeared opposite Hugh Grant in Bitter Moon and Four Weddings and a Funeral and in 2001 she played the role of Lady Sylvia McCordle in Gosford Park. She has also appeared in the theatre and on TV in the 2003 Book Clubbin' episode of Absolutely Fabulous, where she played a character called Plum Berkeley.

She was awarded an OBE in the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours list, and was also made a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by the French government in 2005.¹⁰¹¹

Scott Thomas is a frequent subject on the British motoring programme Top Gear. She was used as a standard of reference for "good taste," such as during the "Cool Wall" segment of the programme. Presenter Jeremy Clarkson would rate a car's coolness based mostly on what he thought Scott Thomas's level of distaste for it would be. She appeared as the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" on the episode broadcast on 25 February 2007 (Series 9, Episode 5) and, proceeded to rubbish most of the decisions Clarkson had made over the past years of the Cool Wall. She also ridiculed the car that he had just ordered, a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder. She completed her lap in a time of 1min 54secs, placing her just above Philip Glenister, although still near the bottom of the leaderboard.

In early 2007, she played Arkadina in a London West End production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, for which she won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress on 9 March 2008.¹² She reprised the role in New York in September 2008.¹³

In 2006, she played the role of Hélène, in French, in Ne le dis à personne (Tell No One), by French director Guillaume Canet. In 2008, Scott Thomas received many accolades for her performance in another French film, Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (I've Loved You So Long), including BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress.

In 2008, Scott Thomas took the role of Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire and Ormond, mother of Henry VIII's second wife Anne, in The Other Boleyn Girl.

In 2009, she played the role of a fashion magazine creator and editor in the film Confessions of a Shopaholic.

In Sarah's Key (2010), Scott Thomas starred as an American journalist living in Paris who discovers that the apartment her husband is renovating for them was once the home of a Jewish family who were taken away in the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup; she becomes obsessed with learning what happened to the family's daughter, Sarah.

In 2011, she starred in the film adaption of Douglas Kennedy's novel The Woman in the Fifth.

In summer 2011 Scott Thomas returned to London's West End to star as Emma in Harold Pinter's Betrayal at the Comedy Theatre. The revival was directed by Ian Rickson. Her husband was played by Ben Miles and the love triangle was completed by Douglas Henshall.

Scott Thomas stars in the 2012 film Bel Ami, based on the 1885 Maupassant novel, as a love interest of George Duroy (played by Robert Pattinson).¹⁴

Personal life

Scott Thomas is divorced from French gynaecologist François Olivennes, with whom she has three children: Hannah (born in 1988), Joseph (1991) and George (2000).

The separation was reportedly precipitated by her romantic involvement with English actor Tobias Menzies, whom she met while appearing in Chekhov's play Three Sisters in London's West End around 2003.¹⁵ Menzies was also her co-star in a London production of Pirandello's As You Desire Me in 2006.¹⁶

Filmography

Theatre

• La Lune déclinante sur 4 ou 5 personnes qui dansent (1983, Festival de Semur en Auxois)
• Terre étrangère (1984, Théâtre des Amandiers de Nanterre)
• Naïves Hirondelles (1984, Festival d'Avignon)
• Yes, peut-être (1985, in a field in Burgundy)
• Bérénice (2001, Festival de Perpignan and Festival d'Avignon + national tour)
• Three Sisters (2003, Playhouse Theatre, London) ... Masha
• As You Desire Me (2005–06, Playhouse Theatre, London) ... Elma
• The Seagull (2007, Royal Court Theatre, London) ... Arkadina

• Laurence Olivier Awards Best Actress – The Seagull

• A Little Night Music (Planned February 2010, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris)... Désirée
• Harold Pinter's Betrayal (2011, Comedy Theatre, London) ... Emma¹⁷

Quotes

• I never go straight to the point if I can go the most difficult way. Why be simple when you can be complicated? – (Graham Fuller, The Cover Interview: Kristin Scott Thomas, originally published in Interview Magazine, November 1996)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kristin Scott Thomas

• Kristin Scott Thomas at the Internet Movie Database
• Ryan Gilbey, "The three stages of Kristin", interview, The Guardian, 27 July 2007
• Mark Anstead, "Kristin Scott Thomas: The Ice Maiden thaws", interview, Daily Mail, 8 June 2007
• Louise France, "I'm 47. Unlike most actresses I don't lie about my age" Interview, The Guardian, 3 February 2008
• Betrayal, "Comedy Theatre Review", The Telegraph, 17 June 2011
• Betrayal - Review, "Comedy Theatre London", The Guardian, 17 June 2011
• First Night: Betrayal, "Comedy Theatre London", The Independent', 17 June 2011