Trump asked me out the day I got divorced, says Emma Thompson
By Steve Bird
The prospect of Donald Trump romantically involved with Dame Emma Thompson might test to breaking point the theory opposites attract.
But the left-wing actress, 66, said the Republican president, 79, invited her out for dinner on the day she became divorced.
From left: Donald Trump with Marla Maples on their wedding day in 1993; and Emma Thompson with Kenneth Branagh in 1994. Credit:
Speaking at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, Thompson said she was in her trailer while filming Primary Colors, the 1998 film loosely based on Bill Clinton’s journey to the White House, when the phone rang.
“It was Donald Trump,” she said. “He said: ‘Hello, this is Donald Trump’. I thought it was a joke and asked: ‘How can I help you?’. Maybe he needed directions from someone.
“Then he said: ‘I’d love you to come and stay at one of my beautiful places. Maybe we could have dinner’. I said: ‘Well, that’s very sweet. Thank you so much. I’ll get back to you’. ”
About that time, Trump had just separated from his second wife, Marla Maples. He had also extended his property empire to include numerous buildings in the heart of New York.
Thompson had announced her separation from actor Kenneth Branagh in 1995 and had begun a relationship with her co-star Greg Wise, whom she later married.
Emma Thompson receives the Leopard Club Award prize at the 78th Locarno International Film Festival in Locarno, Switzerland, last week.Credit: AP
During the Q&A about her career at the film festival, she said she had pondered why Trump contacted her at that time.
“I realised that on that day, my divorce decree had come through,” Thompson said. “And I bet he’s got people looking for suitable people he could take out on his arm. You know, a nice divorcee, that’s what he was looking for.
“And he found the number in my trailer. I mean, that’s stalking.”
The actress, who has been a “life-long” member of Labour in Britain and supported Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, told the festival that, had she had a romantic relationship with Trump, she might have changed the course of history.
“I could have gone on a date with Donald Trump, and then I would have a story to tell. I could have changed the course of American history,” she said.
Thompson has been an active and outspoken political and environmental campaigner since her youth. She once supported the now-disbanded Women’s Equality Party.
Amid criticism for being so outspoken, she has defended her activism by claiming “a woman who has got a louder voice needs to shout very loudly indeed”.
Thompson told the festival that she was “astonished” by the success of the Richard Curtis romantic film Love Actually, in which she stars with Alan Rickman.
“I mean, it’s honestly a constant source of astonishment to me that that film lasted, not that I don’t like the film. I like it very much, but it’s weird,” she said.
She was referring to the moment her character discovers her partner has been unfaithful; she said she believed part of its appeal was because “it touched a nerve because we get a heartbreak, especially women, we have to hide it because we don’t want people to see it”.
The festival gave Thompson the Leopard Club Award for career achievements.
The Telegraph, London
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