Kristin Scott Thomas, whose immaculate performance in I’ve Loved You So Long won high praise worldwide, sat for a tribute last night at Santa Barbara’s Lobero theatre. Pete Hammond pitched the questions. On top of everything else in her backpack (brains, class, beauty, immense talent), KST is modest, self-effacing and very funny. She’s the best. The Academy folk who couldn’t be bothered to watch the ILYSL screener (and therefore didn’t nominate her for Best Actress) need to hang their heads in shame.
KSTSB2 from Hollywood Elsewhere on Vimeo
Her English Patient costar Ralph Fiennes turned up at the finale to present her with the festival’s Cinema Vanguard award.
A small party at the Biltmore Santa Barbara, a sublime old-world establishment, followed. I told KST that SBFF director Roger Durling and I had caught her in the Broadway production of The Seagull performance last November. She said she hasn’t yet seen An Education, the breakout dramedy featuring her Seagull costar Carey Mulligan . She said that plans are afoot to shoot a film version of The Seagull with the same Broadway cast.
I told her I’ve read Matt Greenhalgh‘s script for Nowhere Boy , the young John Lennon biopic in which she’ll play Aunt Mimi, and found it quite sharp and, as far as I could discern, grounded in the reality of ’50s Liverpool culture. We talked very briefly about P.J. Hogan‘s Confessions of a Shopaholic (Disney, 2.13), in which she plays a supporting part “very broadly,” she said.
“Are you the man who compared my [I’ve Loved You So Long] performance to the work of Steve McQueen?” she asked. Yes, I said, “and then you gave me a shout-out in People magazine for having said that.” Actors get hit on day and night — they can’t be expected to remember who wrote or said what.
Kristin Scott Thomas SB from Hollywood Elsewhere on Vimeo.
