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So hello, everyone, darling listeners. It is Emma Thompson here calling you from Blighty, the shores of Great Britain. My microphone is propped up on, well, actually, one of the boxes has got my quite posh cards in that I recently invested in which had my name in tiny little really sort of delicate letters and I felt it was sort of quite I just thought it was classy anyway I may be wrong of course I often am so the the books are Truth and Repair by a woman called Judith L Herman author of Trauma and Recovery you may be getting a sense here then there's Getting Over Your Parents which is a very important book for anyone who is human. And then there's On Being Nice, which of course is a very important thing, but don't take it too far. That's what I always say. Oh, there was one other thing. Welcome to Smartless.

I'm an actor and I have to be on camera today.

Here, have you been working on your faces in the mirror all morning? Yes. Let's see. Surprise. Surprise. Let's see. Surprise.

God, that's so good. Now, one with the mouth closed. One with the mouth closed. Still rolling?

So, Sean, you shoot today, huh? That's how JB directs. Yeah, I do. Right after this, actually. JB, is that how you direct actors?

Still rolling? still rolling and one with the mouth closed okay good good good don't look right at the camera

don't look right at the camera still rolling wait by the way i just got that note i'm not even kidding sean um can you close your mouth in this scene no no what was it a dialogue scene did they just want you to stop yeah no i was just like no it's just like my character was like i can't believe what you're saying like i was just like are you serious like kind of i'm serious i was like and she's like can you do it with your mouth closed do you could you could you do it with your mouth closed i tried i tried really you're like i have dialogues they're like yeah we know just

yeah i'm just prepping my mouth to talk and you're gonna go on on background um yeah that's

gonna be your cue and just try thinking your lines on this take here we go everybody

wait you know i was doing i was doing this uh scene once years ago and eli was there we were in france and i had to this long shot i'm walking down the thing and i get to the end and eli goes bro your legs are really wide apart okay your your gate's really wide And I go, oh, okay. And I had to do it like five more times. The whole time, I'm just thinking about how I was walking. Close your legs. Which is the worst.

No, that's the way you walk. I could do your walk in two seconds. I know, I know I walk.

Oh, yeah, you're a little bow-legged, yeah.

Like you just got off a heartache. Well, hang on.

This is not an excuse to just pile on.

I'm very vulnerable this morning.

I don't think I'm actually bow-legged. I don't think, Will, you're bow-legged. You just happen to swing your legs around one another when you walk forward. It's because I have long legs. You do have long legs. I was thinking about you watching all the hockey this weekend with you filling up that goal crease. Yeah. You know, you need a tall guy in there, right? Get that shoulder up into the high corners.

Well, back in the day when I played, it was much more about getting on the ground stacking the pads. Oh, sure. Stacking the pads. Instead of a butterfly.

So, Will, with you being a Toronto fan, are you keeping it with Canada and rooting for Montreal?

I sure am, yeah.

I'm all the way, yeah.

And Sean, who's your pick to win this cup?

Between the two, between Canada and... Over there at the...

Well, it looks like it's going to be Vegas. Of course, it will air afterwards, but it's pretty exciting.

Will used to... A couple of years ago, or three years ago, Will had me record my picks.

Do you remember that? Oh, yeah, for the Stanley Cup.

Yeah. And so every week I would record the picks and why they would win.

Sean, I'm going to give you three guesses what the name of the team in Las Vegas is called. The hockey team.

Okay, let me ask you this. Does it have something to do with the city itself? It does not. Yeah, it really doesn't.

Yeah, they're not called the chips or the cards. Or the double downs. Yeah, no.

What about...

It's Elizabethan. I'll give you a hint. it's Elizabethan or it's like well I mean the kings the kings that's close that's close

I mean it could be any of those the golden knights the golden knights the golden knights I tell you who's golden oh here he comes Will's got a lunch cake go ahead Will do you guys like a you like a segue yeah yeah well I mean she's golden in that I mean you know she's obviously won two golden globe awards and been nominated for like like 11 or something wow yeah yeah and won two Academy Awards of the five that she's been nominated for.

Oh, no. Wait a second. Five nominations? That's...

Emmys. In fact, she's the sole artist thus far to have received an Academy Award for both acting and screenwriting. Acting for Howard Zinn. Screenwriting for Sense and Sensibility. Emma Thompson. Emma Thompson. Guys, it's just Emma Thompson. I can't even get into her credits. It's Emma Thompson. Emma Thompson. No work.

Dame Emma Thompson.

Incredible. Incredible.

Hello. Hello, hello. Nice to see you. I literally didn't understand a word of any of that. Oh, my God. Three guys talking about hockey. It's fascinating.

I love your refugees on the floor in the background.

Yeah. Oh, can you see them? Yeah, sure. That's my daughter and her boyfriend. They can't hear you, which is just tragic, because all they can hear is me, and they're used to me. So why? Why don't you give them a chair to sit on? They're going to go and sit outside. I don't think you can. They're going.

now where are you are you at their house or your house

no I'm in my office actually I was looking behind Sean he's got a very posh kind of array there's awards there's like loads of statues and portraits and photos and books and Jason's got like some sky which is good and Will is in deep darkness which given the fact that he's giving us It's kind of a vampire voice. It also works, you know? It's all making more and more sense.

Now, we were making fun of Sean the other day because he had one of his awards behind him. As people do, for some weird reason, on their Zoom frame, usually includes any awards that one may have won. You don't have any awards behind you, and you've won tons. Where are they all? Yeah, where are they?

The Oscars are in the lavatory. because that just keeps them in their place. The globes and the BAFTAs and all that are on a very high shelf somewhere where I can't see them. I don't know. I think that's very British.

We have a friend that has an award and she keeps it in the bathroom as well and puts the toilet roll on one of the extended rooms. It's a holder.

That's taking it even further than me.

You know what? I think that maybe you ought to go the other way, which is have a table right in your foyer as you walk into your place with a spotlight and just lean into it. You know what I mean? So they know what they're dealing with.

That's it. Or you just put them in the doorway just so that when people come in, they just trip up over them. I'm so sorry. This is my Oscars. Sorry. I'll just move them. Right this way. Just on the floor. Do come through. Would you like to freshen up? Yeah. and then have copies of them in the toilet so they can't get away, ever and then another, you know, just have them everywhere, so people just go I need to leave Lean into it. I think that that's a good idea. Where is your office? Are you in England or New York or Los Angeles?

I'm so in England, but it doesn't feel like it today. Actually, everyone is experiencing a trauma, a London trauma. So I'm in London, North London, where I've lived all my life. I've lived on the streets since I was six years old. Wow, that's cool. Yeah, weird, quite weird. Anyway, suddenly we got a heat wave, which obviously has nothing to do with climate change.

No, it's all a hoax.

Why would we even suggest that? But it's 35 degrees in London. And, you know, things are just dying in front of you. Pets, household appliances, flour, everything is just wilting. It's like, you know, Dracula's walked into the town. And there's not a lot of air conditioning either, right? We don't have air conditioning here, don't be ridiculous.

Or ice.

We have three hot days a year. Or ice. But they're 36 degrees. Yeah, or ice. Yeah, although that's coming. Emma, why is that?

That's coming.

Why is it that Europe on the whole somehow sort of all made a consensus decision? Yeah, take on Europe on this. That carbonated drinks don't taste better with ice cubes. I mean, it seems pretty clear that they do. That's just objectively true, right? But yet you have to ask for ice with a soda. I sound like an ugly American here. I apologize.

No, you're just obsessed with ice. Americans have always been obsessed with ice.

When I used to...

You're obsessed with it. I'm sorry, but you are. When I first arrived in America and ice was just... It was just brought... You were practically put in a fucking ice bath when you arrived. We were so excited about it. Get in the ice. Get in the ice. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. Everything came with ice. You know, chicken parmesan came with ice. I'm like, what's going on here? This is mad. That's really funny. You're not obsessed with it. And we don't have that obsession because we don't have probably as much money and our refrigerators are not as big and they don't produce ice. We all get fridges that say they produce ice and within a week, they've broken down.

So what do you do to beat the heat?

You just lie face down on the pavement, panting, hoping that some dog will come and whittle on you and cool you down. I mean, we don't have methods. But here's the thing.

You just kind of, you just take it. We don't need to always be in our perfect comfort zones at all times. No. That's the whole point of life. That's true. There are things that happen. There are days where you're hot and you deal with it. There are days that are cold. But it is true that in this country, I'm Canadian, by the way, Emma, so I'm with you.

I know you're Canadian, Will, darling. But I think you guys are used to extreme temperatures and we live in a temperate zone and we're really not used to it. And now because of climate change, look at my face. I mean, I'm the same color as one of the stripes in my shirt. It's tragic. But, you know, it's like we're just not used to it. And it's quite, it's really weird, actually.

It's so hot. Because it's happening. How was it last summer? Last summer it was super hot there too, right? Europe had a huge heat. Yeah, super hot. It was so hot.

And I was traveling on the tube. Were you there?

I was there last summer. It was so hot. He was doing his play.

Oh, man. It was so hot.

And, like to everybody's point, There's no air conditioning. We were staying in a place that had air conditioning, and we were rehearsing in a place that was like a greenhouse with no air. And what about the theater, Sean? Did the theater have air conditioning? No air conditioning in the theater.

What?

No, there's no air conditioning in our theaters.

Come on.

Because we've never needed it before, and we haven't adapted yet to climate change.

I want to, Emma, you're talking about taking the tube. What's your experience like when you take the tube? Are you, as in London, are you approached constantly and mobbed by people asking you questions? No, no.

No, not at all. Nobody takes any notice on the tube. They're all looking at their phones.

But my guess is that when they do recognize you, it's something very charming and respectful and they say which movie that they love. She's a respected actor as opposed to like a celebrity. Like you see a celebrity out, But it's like a giraffe has escaped the zoo and you've got to get a picture of it on your phone. Yes, it's a different thing. Yeah, yeah.

You're right. I'm very lucky, I think, because it's the same in Europe. People have a relationship with, I don't know what it's like for you guys, but you know, you must have this, Jason, that people have a relationship with a particular role that you might have played or maybe a couple. And we've done lots and lots of different things. So I think if, for instance, you're sort of an action hero, I can imagine that for somebody like, I don't know, Schwarzenegger or Stallone or Bruce Willis, you know, then there's a very specific response every single time.

single time. But for me, you know, I can pass, not necessarily unnoticed, but certainly

it's never been an issue, actually. What's your least favorite kind of interaction with a fan? Like when you're with your family or, I mean, because it's like there's some, I always get embarrassed if it ever causes like a scene. In other words, grabs the attention of others that might not otherwise know who I am or notice, you know, like, it's great when it's just sort of mellow and quiet and passing, right? Yes, I mean, it's lovely. And people will just

pass you and still keep walking. They go, love your work, bye. It's lovely. But when you're sort of buying sausages with your daughter, you don't really want them to come up and go, can I have a selfie? Selfies are interesting, aren't they? How do you guys feel about those? Right. How do you feel about the, do you feel that they're intrusive at all? What do you think?

Well, no, but what I have noticed is that in the old days, it used to be autographs. And if you didn't have a piece of paper or a pen, then it was just, hey, nice to meet you and like your work. And it was a nice, but now everybody's got a phone. So even if you don't want an autograph, right, slash picture you still sort of feel obligated well i better take this you know and so people kind of line up a little bit and anyway it's i'm not i don't mean to sound like i'm complaining do you ever say no no never um never and i've been with people i don't i mean never is probably i

might i'm sure i have but i don't i do when i'm with the kids sometimes when i'm when i'm when i'm with if i'm with the kids or with the little kids and if and if it's an adult asking i'll say no thing i've never said no to a kid i have i have said that i have yeah but i say sometimes

i'm the same will i wouldn't ever say no to a child but sometimes if i'm with the family i'll say would you mind awfully i i just i i'm with my family and what's so interesting to me is that every time i have said no and it's quite rare people have taken it so well because they seem completely to understand so in a way I feel like they know what they're asking for that what they're asking for is a little bit kind of it's a lot to take a photograph with somebody

I have some famous friends that they say no all the time they never say yes and it makes me so uncomfortable that they're like I just feel like

because it's such an easy give in a way it's an easy give have you ever gotten hey can I get a picture really quick and then they hand you the camera because that's happened to me they want you to take a picture of them with their friends

I've also many times got oh my god and then they say the name of a completely different actress so I have the choice I either say yes I am so and so I would love to give you a photograph or I say I'm 20 years younger or I say oh I'm 20 years older or I say no she's dead actually but And then I just kind of move gently on through.

You know what's funny? The other day I was sitting in a restaurant and I had two interactions in a row, back to back. First of all, I had a woman come over and say, and I was sitting with my sister and my brother-in-law and our buddy Eli, Canadian Eli, and this woman said, so sorry to bother you and I know that you're eating and then proceeded to sit down on the bench next to me and begin the conversation. at which point I was like, well, you're not that bothered. Did you grab a fry? Then she left, and then this other woman came over and she said, my friend is a fan, but I'm sorry, what's your name? And Eli goes, Jason Bateman. She said, thank you so much. She walked away. JB, I forgot to tell you that. It was so good. It was so good.

I had a really wonderful one. I was in Harry's Bar in Venice, which is, you know, the original Harry's Bar, and it was very nice. It was years and years ago, and a woman came up. She was in the other room and she kept on peeling off these massive smiles and grins at me and waving. And I thought, okay, so she must know my work happens. That seems fair enough. I'm in Venice. It's the festival, blah. Anyway, she came over as she was leaving and said, I'm so happy to see you in here. I said, oh, thank you. Thinking, why? And then she said, you know, I still wear those shoes. I wear them all the time. I love them. You were so right. I was wrong and you were right. And I'm thinking, shoes. And then she said, you remember, I'm staring at her thinking, I just can't work this one out. I haven't made a film about shoes. Have I? Anyway, she said, you remember the fifth floor in Barney's? So she thought. that I'd sold her a pair of shoes in the shoe department at Barney's and she was thrilled to see me in Harry's Bar because clearly that meant I was doing quite well for myself. Do you know what I mean? That I was like in the same, I was in the same arena as a woman who buys shoes on the fifth floor at Barney's and that that gave her pleasure and she needed to convey that to me, which was very kind, I thought, actually. And I said, I'm so glad they still fit.

Good for you. All right. Now, Emma, do you miss Barneys like I miss Barneys? I do.

I miss Barneys a lot.

Sorry, I really do.

We were just talking about it the other day. I miss it so much.

We're admitting to terrible shallowness, but I do. I really do.

No, but I mean... By the way, both New York and L.A.

I'm sad. I miss them both. Yeah, both places. I love those places. I love them.

What happened to it? What happened? How would it go belly up? It's because people shop online now, right? Is that right? I guess.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything, yeah.

It has to go to the shoe, right? Direct to the shoe department. Right.

Oh, no, you just walk in the back way there on, like, what is that, like, 59th Street? You can walk in that back door. Oh, I was talking about Los Angeles. And there was one downtown, too. Well, the original on 17th Street. Oh, guys, keep saying numbers. Say numbers, Mark.

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And now back to the show.

Wait, Emma. So listen, let's go back. Let's go back. Let's go back. I love. Let's start the interview. Let's start the interview.

You guys, Emma's here.

Emma, we're the worst interviewers of all time. I'm so sorry. And you're realizing that in real time. And your regret is evident. So I didn't know that you started, well, I started, but you were in the acclaimed Footlight Sketch Group at Cambridge, which has seen a lot of great performers. So you have a history of sketch comedy, which is so amazing. I didn't know that. That's cool. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I did that for years.

Would that be like the British Lampoon type of thing? Sort of, yeah. It's an equivalent to sort of the Lampoon in a way-ish. But it's more of a sketch.

But you know, it's like SNL. SNL is basically what I would think of as Review. So back in the day, in the early part of the 20th century, Review was huge in our country. And it was basically a collection of sketches, songs, you know, just a kind of Review. Like a variety show. And a variety show, yes. And that's what we did. It's completely dead now. We don't have review anymore. But SNL is a form of review. It really is. It's sketches and songs and music. You know, it's little bites. And I started doing that, absolutely, with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. Yeah. Did it for years. In fact, I was going to be a comedian. and that was what I wanted to be because I admired Lily Tomlin. I never knew that. So greatly. She's great. Oh, my gosh. And Jane Wagner, you know, the signs of intelligent life in the universe. All of her beautiful characters.

Yeah, incredible.

I love that. That's what I wanted to do for a living.

But you are still doing it because anytime there's a character that lends itself even slightly to comedy, you take that and you expand that and you're always freaking hilarious whenever you choose to be. Excellent timing. That beautiful British dryness. It's just, oh, it's so good.

Well, I mean, I was going to ask you, these guys are going to make fun of me, but I'm a massive Harry Potter fan. Oh, no kidding.

Show us the wand.

I don't, I really do have a wand. But you as Professor Sybil, right? Professor Sybil?

Sybil Jalore, yeah.

Yeah, that was...

She said, fatigued.

Speaking about, like, characters and, like, Lily Tomlin and Jane, and all those things that Lily Tomlin, when i saw that it was such a and this is a compliment such a big character in a world that has big characters with the you guys if you haven't seen her she has like coke bottle glasses like literally this thick that make her eyeballs this big and and she's neurotic and and she gets possessed and it's it's such an incredible character how did you trust that that was that your choice to come in on the first day we talk about this a lot with a huge swing which a huge swing was going to be how did you trust that you know what I mean you don't really do how did

you come up with the character well it was written in the books that she has those glasses books yeah that she I think she's definitely nearly blind can't see anything and obviously deeply neurotic because she can see sometimes whether people are you know um have the grim or not so um I mean honestly in my quite long career given the fact that i'm good 10 years older than all of you guys i have done many many parts and and i've spent about 30 days on harry potter in my whole life you know so it's kind of a strange thing to talk about because it's become such this huge phenomenon um and that's a lot of a lot of the time that's what when people are very sort of drawn to that People stop, yeah.

I mean, I've also seen Saving Mr. Banks like 20 times, and I've seen Sensibility and Remains of the Day.

No, no, I wasn't getting at you.

Yeah, yeah. It's just that... Just to make sure.

You know what it's like, guys, when you decide to play someone. You just have to fling yourself into it, don't you, at first, and hope that your instincts are right.

Yeah. Well, there's always that thing, because we talk about that idea, you know, I always say it's like, when you first arrive and you're doing something, you've made a sort of a choice and you want to make sure that you're not at a different volume than everybody else, especially if you come in in the middle. That's what I'm saying. You know what I mean? And you're like...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true.

Is this, you know...

Am I in a different movie?

Yeah, am I in a different movie? I came in, I did something this winter and I sort of...

came in they'd been working for a while and i'm thought like oh boy and i had a i had a real look going and i thought what was the look what was the look he was a sort of he's sort of like a retired rocker and he and he's sort of down on his luck and uh and pedro pascal comes in and he's my brother and and i just like and i sort of worked on it with with the director with tony gilroy and i thought okay this is it but at the same time i thought like you know that first moment like here we go guys and we're rolling I'm like boy this better work you know what I mean yeah it's so scary

but at least Tony had seen it yes he had

we had talked about it but still we hadn't done it do you know what I mean

so you don't get to rehearse like us it's quite rare isn't it in film that you get to rehearse whereas in theatre it's all you do it's all about rehearsal all about rehearsal I love it so sometimes I think it's a shame we don't get we don't get enough rehearsal in film but you know again it's a very mysterious business filming it is you never know what's going to come out and the camera's so odd don't you think bit of a sort of witchy presence i find well you also have that thing when you say

you know when you finish something and you go and people say how was it you're like i don't know yeah you know that that's sort of in that period of sort of waiting and jb obviously when you're in post and you're putting a film together you're living with it it's breathing with you all the time and so like you have a sense of it but everybody else kind of goes away um yeah there

really is always a emma you've you've done some directing uh you yes no no no never directed have you not no i i want to feel like you had a couple of times but there is why why haven't you let's let's press her can you emma can you check that you haven't yeah we'll wait we'll wait um

I've interfered a massive amount. That's not directing, though. That's just taking part in a slightly upsetting way. Especially with, I suppose, with the films with children in. I've spent a lot of time with the children because that's important. And the films I've made for young people, I always consider children to be the sacred audience. They're the people we need to make the best of our work for. because it's the first time that they see something it needs to be so so good you've

done so many things over so many genres when i when you when you're speaking of like the children's films and stuff and i so many things and i was just i was just i watched within the last year uh a film that you did a few years ago uh god probably 10 years ago but it's based on one of my favorite books of all time which is alone in berlin oh my god you saw that you're like one of three people of course i love that book was incredible to me and then i love that book it's one it's just such an amazing it's one of the best second halves of a book i've ever read it's just mesmerizing and so then and then i realized i made a film and so i just i didn't know that you had made that film and i watched it it was beautiful it was lovely it's such a great story um is it a world war ii story it is it's almost a piece of like resistance art in a way uh the book is in the in the film and and how do you because you do these things across so many different genres like how do you decide to do like a film like alone in berlin let's say but just for instance is it always just uh material based or where you're how you're feeling like at a certain time in your life and you're like i want to do something that's kind of moody or

how do you go about that process i think you're right i think it's a little bit like meeting the right person at the right time or reading the right book at the right time um things come to you at moments when perhaps you need them i think as artists sometimes we need to play certain things it's just coming at us i mean i think it's all sort of out there moving around us all the time and then things pass us by and we think oh i wish i could have oh well actually no that was wrong and then someone come something comes in and hits us right in the center of us and you go i really want to tell that story now and sometimes you you don't know why but i always know if there's some if it's something i want to do i always know and it's not even it's not something i could um quantify quantify in any useful way it's literally something will come across my bowels and I go oh oh that's a wonderful story I mean Alone in Berlin is I mean I'm kind of slightly obsessed with both wars actually because I think they left traumas in our country um in the UK that have never really been healed or addressed and um and so Alone in Berlin for me is just this beautiful I mean the book is

incredible if you haven't read it do um it's hafner isn't it it's his it's his pseudonym isn't it will um sebastian hafner hans falada hans hans falada yeah and his actual name is perhaps

the other yeah i i i get that that when i sean you can go get a snack three stooges right sean

when that came yeah elma have you ever take have you ever taken apart um a character said yes to it because that character has sort of a personality trait that you are thinking seriously about expanding in your own life and this might be a fun way to kind of play a little bit with that and try it on and maybe incorporate some of it at the end if it goes well, kind of because I've done that a couple of times.

That's really interesting.

Really? Like you're like, I want to be like,

I'm going to play this smarty pants because...

I'd like to be a little bit more like how I'm kind of reading this character in this script, and this would be kind of an easy little cheat to try it on. Is that DTF? Is that DTF? Yeah. But, yeah, sometimes it's for the director or the story or the other cast, but then sometimes it's, oh, I kind of always wanted to be kind of like that, and maybe I'll try a little bit here. Have you ever done that?

I think I did that with Down Cemetery Road. I did a telly recently. It's a series called Down Cemetery Road, which is a quote from a Philip Larkin poem. And it's a Mick Herron book. It's the Slow Horses group. And I think I, I mean, not only do I love the author, but the character, she's sort of my age, probably grew up in London during the slightly seamy 60s. I mean, as a child in the 60s, you know, I think about my childhood in London, how really close to the end of the war that was. I was born in 1959, so it's 14 years after the end of the Second World War. It's nothing really, it's like a blink of an eye. And therefore...

You're still rebuilding.

Yeah, oh God, yes, absolutely. And still to a certain extent, a little bit of not having quite enough to eat. It was, I think, quite dark probably. which is, you know, one of the reasons why Lonely Berlin was interesting for me as well. But I think that this character, Zoe, is not a good girl. I was brought up to be very good, very obedient, very, not in a bad way, but in a way that I think that many, many girls in my culture are brought up to be always lovely and kind and loving and emollient and accepting and tolerant. And I think that whilst there is a place for that in both sexes, it is not appropriate for it to be just women who do that and nor is it sometimes appropriate for them to do it at all. So, you know, actually, this woman doesn't do it in any way. She just, she's a very releasing sort of character because she's unapologetic and certainly not polite. Right. And whilst she has kindness, certainly, and empathy inside her, She uses it very judiciously and not, as it were, just as a kind of scattergun technique to avoid conflict or being judged for not being, you know, a nice woman.

Sure. Does she weaponize it?

What do you mean?

Like uses it, like it's calculated the way it's used?

No, it's quite natural. It's quite natural. It's not really a, it's just an instinct. She's just managed.

Like I always feel when Sean's being kind to me, he's just manipulating me, you know what I mean?

Well, that's true, I think, yeah. I mean, I think you're right about that, clearly.

Wait, Emma, you grew up, I was just thinking, so both your, as you talk about this, and both your parents, correct me if I'm wrong, were actors, is that right?

Mm-hmm, yeah.

Yeah, so you grew up, like, this is a sort of a, you grew up in the family biz, in a way, is that right?

Yes, I did. but it was the family business of theatre.

Yeah.

So my parents grew up at a time when there really was no television. So they expected, naturally, as actors, my father was working class from a southern town in our Guildford, had not very much education, was very self-taught, decided to become an actor and leave that patch. I mean, he was... a proper lever of everything that he came from you know his mother my grandmother was a servant she went into service when she was 16 years old and and indeed one of her children was born out of wedlock because she was raped by one of her employers so her journey as a mother with these four children was really um quite dramatic and dad got out and and went into the theater and met my mother who's from scotland very different culture and background um presbyterian scottish presbyterian so very um well puritanical actually yeah um one can't really avoid that even though she's never been uh able to resist good wine um which is excellent uh but you know there was i I did grow up in this very interesting sort of combination. But they did theatre and they expected to do Shakespeare in the provinces and then radio. And then television arrived. We didn't have a television until I was, I don't know, eight and it was black and white. You know, we didn't do that. We didn't have that. And now it's so different.

yeah it's it's it's kind of indescribably strange yeah you mean the amount of of content that's out there to distract you by the breadth of it all sort of in a way yeah yeah the and the amount that must be produced right what was your policy with your kids did you um were you were you someone that was um screens are okay televisions okay ipads are okay um uh or were you like no it's it's reading um or it's piano lessons or it's because i i grew up in one of those households very very disciplined although there was plenty of tv too it was kind of a combo well it was a good combo

i think we told my daughter the television was broken which she believed for at least eight years um it's still broken and then she danced in at the age of about nine and said I've mended it. She just found the sodding remote. Anyway, and we didn't allow her to have a phone until she was at secondary school at the age of 13. Yeah, smart. So iPads, oh God, sometimes when we were driving, we live in Scotland as well, we were driving to Scotland and iPad was a wonderful thing and you could do a film on. And then they could watch a film, which actually I don't feel guilty about. If it's a good film, it's a lovely way to spend two hours. Because I used to be stuck in the car for eight hours as we were driving to Scotland with nothing to do but stare at the lamppost going by and do terrible sort of...

But it's good for the imagination, though. It's really good. Think about all those hours.

It's true, and boredom's good for the imagination as well, Will. I know. I am friends with Sean. We've lost our relationship with being bored.

Managing boredom is a talent everybody needs.

Okay, here's my question to all of you. When was the last time you were actually bored?

This weekend.

Really?

why how well just because i was inside the whole time it was raining and i ran out of good tv i had done all my homework and i but then guess what happens you get truly relaxed i really feel like true relaxation lives somewhere next door to boredom and that's when naps happen and and and clarity of mind and and and all your priorities get in the right order and you can think about what's like it's a great managing boredom embracing boredom seeing the virtues of boredom is something that i just don't think that my my kids their generation is uh is understands or is friends with they can't even ride an elevator without looking at their phone yeah sit at a red light

constant stimulation yeah i've actually i've actually said to my both my sons at various points you cannot walk down the stairs looking at your phone that has to be something that you that is independent of your phone. This is absurd. But I will say, you know what? I was talking about this with a friend recently. I'm never bored. Like, even if I'm just sitting there, I don't know why. I never feel bored.

Right. I don't mean it as a pejorative. I just feel like it's like there's, you're not, we're all so, I think most people in the world today are highly functioning. Like, we're just like trained to manage 50 different things at the same time just because it's just sort of global productivity. But there is a great... God, you're always talking about productivity.

It's unbelievable. You never shy away from productivity. Sean, I was just thinking, Sean, I wonder, when you hear Emma talk about growing up in the theater and her parents... Hi, Sean, by the way, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm such a big fan.

Do you wish, in a way, when you hear about people who grew up in the theater and stuff, do you feel, knowing how much you enjoy that, do you ever feel like, oh, I wish I'd grown up in that kind of environment? Yeah, all the time. Do you? Well, even Jason growing up around Hollywood and in it, or Emma growing up in it. When did it start for you, Sean? It was high school, right? Yeah, yeah, high school, junior high. I worked backstage. I worked the light, not the light. It was just one light. One switch. Yeah, it was one switch. Seriously, it was on and off. We got our guy. We got our guy. I was like, I think I can do that. And it was Calamity Jane, the musical Calamity Jane. Oh, yeah. And yeah, that was junior high and then high school. And then I was nervous about telling my family I was in theater because it wasn't associated with sports. And I thought, what were they going to think? And so my oldest brother was like, hey, dude, it's okay, bro. Like, I play football. I have makeup on underneath my eyes, the black marks underneath my eyes. just like you wear makeup and i was like oh that's really sweet and then um and then other things happened but uh well let's not get into that but yeah i always you know i was i don't know that i love to do it anymore i mean the grind of theater is something right emma that you just have to that the repetition on your body and your brain is something you kind of I have no choice but to outgrow because of the endurance. We'll be right back. Did you know that you can buy your car completely online at Autotrader? Really? Just visit autotrader.com, filter and search through dealership listings for the car you want. Make, model, color, and all the features that matter to you. Go ahead, get picky. Whether you're into subcompacts with heated cupholders, crossovers with all-wheel drive pickups with kicking sound systems or SUVs that can survive whatever chaos your kids unleash just drop in your info and you'll only see cars in your budget really once you find your one and only you can do the whole deal online and have the car delivered to your driveway or you can pick it up at the dealership and drive your new ride right off the lot really AutoTrader makes it easy to buy your car online because the whole process is designed around your wants and must-haves. AutoTrader. Buy your car online. Really. Tillamook ice cream is real, unbelievably creamy ice cream made with quality ingredients. And it's now available in extra options, family size, pints, and bars. But no matter the size or shape, Tillamook ice cream is made the extremely creamy way you deserve. With the 48-ounce family-size option, there's enough to share, but the name Family Size is just a suggestion.

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done film but um the last thing i did was something i again you know we were talking earlier about things that you just can't say no to they asked me to do sweeney todd um um steve sondheim's sweeney todd with brin turfle and i did it we did it with the new york philharmonic at the lincoln center we did five performances there and then we did two weeks at the dominion here and when was this how cool it was 10 years ago maybe oh wow yeah yeah and and you'd be great

and i'm sure you were phenomenal it's a perfect part for you absolutely you mean the psychotic

like woman who kills people and puts them into pies walk it back sean quick quick

you gotta let sean finish emma no the com the comedy of it i'm sure you nailed it

No, I'm sure I went way too far. But anyway, the point was we were on stage with the New York Philharmonic and one of the things that really I loved about it was the sort of cross-pollination of different art forms that you had a whole orchestra on stage that you could act with. So, you know, you were acting while the timpanist was behind you making these amazing noises and they loved it as well. The orchestra adored it because you were in amongst them And I think that we silo music, classical music in particular, and acting in the theatre, you know, which sometimes can just make people feel a little bit superior, which is not the case. It's just acting in the theatre. She's looking right at you, Sean. And then there's television acting, which is television acting. You've got to be really clever with the chemistry. If you're a good actor, you're a good actor, you're a good actor, whatever you're doing. I love that. I can't bear all that snobbery, which was very much alive when my parents were coming up. So, yeah, that's the last thing I did. And I, oh, I mean, it was an amazing feeling. Like, I don't know whether you guys have ever had this, but when you do something that uses every single cell of you, nothing is left behind. You know how you can come on particularly to do a job that's a short job and you're doing a small part or a cameo role and you're using a tiny little bit of your palette. and you have to be careful not to overdo it, that's very much to your point, Sean, about Professor Trelawney. It had to be a very specific small thing and it had to be right, but it had to be big as well. But this had to be right, it had to be enormous, and it used absolutely everything I had. And I had such a wonderful time doing it, but my God, it took me nine months to learn it. And then I did it for like 30 performances.

Yeah, I hear Sondheim is almost as difficult as Shakespeare, right? Sometimes. I mean, you've got the music part of it as well. Yeah, finding those notes and those chords is really hard.

I would say harder, yeah. Harder than Shakespeare. Shakespeare makes it easy for us. He's like a wonderful old sailing boat you can get into and just sail into the sunset. Because he's so reliable.

Well, speaking of writing, I mentioned that you're the only performer to have won for acting and writing, and you wrote Sense and Sensibility and how did that happen? I did not know that. Because I didn't know that either. And so it's delightful to know.

I adapted it. Jane Austen wrote it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I've laterized mercilessly. Yeah. Oh, it's not in radio. No, no. But how did that happen with the great Ang Lee, right? Directed Sense and Sensibility?

With the great Ang Lee. Actually, it happened kind of interestingly because like I used to do comedy. That was my thing. That's what I wanted to do. and I was very lucky because I worked with a wonderful comedy producer he produced the first all black comedy series in the UK Desmond's and then and he he worked with an awful lot of black and Asian and and female comedians he was I suppose quite revolutionary in that sense and I made a comedy series with him and one of the sketches I wrote was about a young woman coming back from her honeymoon to see her mother with a bit with something on her mind and she starts to talk to her mother about a small little woodland hairy creature that lives in her husband's lap that he's drawn attention to on several occasions that appears to be attached and also changes shape sometimes that she just doesn't want to touch or have anything to do with and um so the sketch is about sexual ignorance so it's a feminist sketch about the fact that women weren't allowed to know about sex but then they were just sent off into the wild they were married off without any kind of help whatsoever and can you imagine coming across a penis for the first time and then seeing it become erect in front of your very eyes and not know

know what it was right that's what we put people through anyway so the sketch was about that and um and i think it was quite quite funny and our producer lindsey duran the extraordinary hollywood producer who actually started her work with spinal tap excuse me literally one of my favorite films ever sure um so she wrote to me and said i've seen your sketch about the victorian penis i wonder if you would fancy adapting a jane austen novel i thought interesting interesting segue yeah wow i said well i'll give it a go so i gave it a go amazing give it a go

amazing now what about what about other other screenplays afterwards forgive my ignorance

is that something no not at all i wrote i've written forgiving your ignorance that haven't been made actually so but i wrote i've written a couple of kids films one called the nanny mcfee who's a strange sort of warty witchy woman um and um actually we've spent 10 years writing the musical of that which is coming into the west end next year no way wow who wrote the music for that gary clark who wrote the music for sing street which was um a lovely sort of beautiful irish film um so he's he's one of those people who just can write songs he spent years and years in nashville and you just think about the music industry it's just amazingly full of these people who he was in a band and it was kind of going but he didn't like the fame he didn't like the glare so he retreated and started to write songs and he's written songs with i mean so many of the greats he's just a wonderful songwriter and we have written about a billion songs cut a billion songs we've been writing it for so long i gave him i gave him a couple of touchstones i said think think tom wait's swordfish trombone and also do you know a guy a gang called the tiger lilies they're quite yeah yeah yeah that was the kind of thing i was like a victorian steampunk slightly dark, you know, a little bit on the circus side, but not, you know,

like, dark. That sounds great.

So that's what we've been doing.

That's really cool. Yeah, I can't wait for that. I would be remiss if we didn't mention your new project, The Sheep Detective. The Sheep Detective? What is that about? Craig Mazin wrote that. The great Craig Mazin. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I love Craig. JB, your old buddy.

The Rochenobel. He's such a wonderful, wonderful man. And then he wrote, he adapted a book where, yeah, it's about a shepherd who gets murdered and his sheep solve the crime. I mean, that's it. That's the log line. You just go, yes, I'll be in it. I'll play a sheep. I'll play anything. I'll play a broom. I'll play anything. Because it's such a good premise.

And this is starring Hugh Jackman.

Sounds like a great yarn. Guys, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Nice. Good, I noticed that. Thank you.

I hear this is a really, really good film that parents would like as well. Because it is made for the kids, right?

It's you and the delightful Hugh Jackman. Is that right? Am I right about that? Yeah.

Did you have to work with some photorealistic animals? Or is it...

Photorealistic actors. No, actually, I was only on it for about three weeks. I'd just done a thriller in Finland. And then I was going on to the telly. So I sort of kind of dropped in for three weeks with this lovely bunch of folk. And that, it was gorgeous.

Yeah, it sounds like a gorgeous type of location, right? Where did you shoot that?

Oh, God, now you're asking me. I mean, it was in England. It was in England, okay. And actually, we shot the second nanometer fee in the same village because it's this kind of picture-perfect village. and I can't remember what it's called. Well, most importantly... I think it's called Hambledon, actually. I think I've actually remembered that, which is a fucking miracle.

Was it...

Given that I'm literally 175 degrees here.

Yeah.

My brain's boiling.

Was it close enough to your house where you could sleep in your own bed or did you have to stay...

No, so not. So, so not. No.

Okay, so you had to live on vacation.

That never happens.

Never. You know what I love about England, sitting in an English hotel especially a small English hotel is an English breakfast. I adore an English breakfast. Who doesn't?

Which is what? Well, there's different kinds.

So, Will, what do you get?

You like the little sausages?

I don't generally... Yeah, I shy away from the black puddings, but I like eggs and sausage. What's black pudding? I've never had black pudding. Yeah, what's in a black pudding?

Haven't you, Sean?

Molasses?

It's pig's blood.

No.

No, it's not. It's congelia. It is. It's pig's blood mixed up with various sort of spices and grains. Oh, my God. It's like haggis.

Look at Jesus' face.

Because I'm half Scottish, and haggis is a sheep's stomach. Oh, my God. And the sheep's stomach is filled with all the sort of offal, which is all chopped up with various bits of... Did somebody just make a sheep noise? Oh, my God.

um and well why do we have these kinds of foods over there is it because the country's so old that that you had to figure out how to how to make stuff you could eat out of what was available right this is before but also you know you didn't waste anything right so if

you killed a cow you ate its fucking stomach as well and it's the only thing you didn't eat was its hair yeah you know and its horns you had to work out how if you had an animal and you killed it because you don't forget it's really quite recent that the country's i suppose scotland in particular was poor very poor yeah until recently and in many areas is still poor yeah now do you

the longest time the longest i've ever spent in england is just recently last year for like three or four months. What were you doing over there, Sean? Do you get, Emma, do you get, are you as entranced still by the charm of the country and everything around it in the history? Or are you just kind of like, it is what it is. And yeah, there's Big Ben. There's the thing. I'm so used to it that it's hard to appreciate it anymore. Or do you still feel like, wow.

Oh, no, I'm much more entranced than I was when I was young.

Really?

I mean, I just adore it. I'm a Londoner, but I'm also a Scotch. So my mother's Scottish. So for me, the most beautiful countryside is in Scotland. And Scotland is wild and it's very, you know, it's unheld, it's unbound and it's full of the most extraordinary energies. And London is also, you know, a very precious place because everyone, this great teeming bowl of people living in this massive sishi, generally speaking quite peacefully yeah i'm very i love love my city i'm not as familiar with england actually the countryside but the countryside in england can be quite breathtaking yeah up to yorkshire in the north or northumberland or you know we we were shooting all over those we shot in cornwall last year and i'd never really spent any time in cornwall and i just wanted to go and live there. It was so exquisite. And full of still full of character and community actually. Really

You know what? Might I suggest a non-scripted show, Emma, where you go around and rediscover England. There you go. We're going to produce it. Listen, we're going to pitch it to you. We're going to get in touch with your people.

You all have to come with me.

Yes. I'm a devoted Anglophile. These guys know. And the sheep go with you and come. The sheep come with, yeah.

And then at the end of the show, we eat them.

Yes, of course. Every piece. Every piece. Every piece, and Jason takes the stomach. Jason takes the stomach.

You all have to take one particular really sort of unpleasant part, like the pancreas, and then you invent a really good little recipe just for that part. I'll take the coat.

By the way, I'm going to put this out there. I'm going to put this out there. There is somebody listening right now, maybe over in the UK, who's going to say, like, this is a great idea. And you are going to get an incoming call. It is a good idea, actually. Right? I would watch the hell out of that. Yeah, I would watch that, too. Of Emma going through England and discovering villages in different places. Oh, look at this. Like Stanley Tucci in Italy. I can't wait. I love it. I can't wait. I'm an EP on it already.

I'll just go around saying, endlessly, you want some gain?

That was my favorite phrase. You want some gain? You want more of me?

That was Jason. As he was saying, you want some gain? It just sounded so... Oh, yes, I think I do want some gay.

That's hot podcast talk.

What are you going to suggest next?

Emma, we have taken up too much of your time. It's been probably been an hour. What an absolute delight to have you here. That was real fast. Yeah, that was fast. I hope you get to cool off and jump in a pool.

We could have gone on forever. No, I'm literally going to go. And I put the blooming skusher thing on in the garden. I'm going to go and stand in it now.

Yeah, good idea. I don't think we got to any questions even. And the next time you come on the show, we're actually going to ask you some questions. On the next Marlis. Yeah.

That was so lovely, guys. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks for being here.

Thank you so much for your time and for everything that you do. And we're just such fans. It's just amazing. Yeah, we are.

Well, right back at you. Every single one of you, I love you deeply.

Likewise. Likewise. Thank you, my dear. Make sure you pick your kids up off the floor. Yeah. Yeah. No, they've gone. They've long gone.

They're lying face down on the wet lawn. All righty.

Fare thee well.

Thanks, Emma.

Bye.

Bye. Guys. Yeah. Emma Thompson. Have you seen Remains of the Day? Yes. Yes. I mean, I've seen that so many times. How many films do you think she's done? I bet she's done, I don't know, like 65 movies. Well, what's better than that, how many great films has she done? I know. Like so many. 64.

so many incredible performances and just so and so different in every genre effortless

and I meant it she is there's always there's some sort of cheeky little wink always to each one of her characters oh you find her

to be a little cheeky

she's a bit cheeky she's a bit cheeky she also

she also like she's also emanates kind of like she's gonna take care of me like you know she's my mom yes you know and I like that I want her to take care of me I'm gonna send her my number I agree with you I mean think about it Love Actually

Oh yeah Forgot about that Massive hit that everybody's still It's just Oh god

I think you squandered An opportunity there Will You really could have gone down An incredible memory lane Of parts And movies and stuff And said We're fucking talking about Haggis And god damn But there's no time

Because we're just having A conversation man We're just We're just visiting Weren't we Yeah we're just having A quick little visit We're not journalists No Yeah

We'll have to have her back Yeah

You know we're just

Love action We're just simple guys You know We're not very smart In fact We're smart less Oh Oh wow

So see So right there I was just introducing A new sign off Instead of buy Okay We work on some sort of way To just say Yeah I guess we're just kind of

Smart less Yeah

And then it's over

But that's the only one You can use then You can only say We're smart less Right but you gotta somehow

Work that into the sentence Yeah but that's just Could just be like

That came out of this process of us doing that. Do you know what I mean? Like that's a natural progression. In a way, it's almost, you could call it like a buy product. A buy product of the show.

Bye.

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You know what's underrated? Not thinking about your stomach. It shouldn't get a vote. You want a stomach that minds its own business so you can go do something more interesting. New Culturel Complete 3-in-1 Biotics Mini Chews are delicious, crunchy bits you easily pop in your mouth every day. No water needed. They help with occasional bloating, gas, and digestive discomfort to keep your gut drama-free. Because when your stomach is boring, your life doesn't have to be. Culturel Probiotics. The science of a boring gut. See website for details.