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Let’s institute a new rule: If you’re going to have a panel discussion of some kind, Emma Thompson needs to be included. From THR’s prestige-actress roundtable:
Are there roles you won’t play?
THOMPSON: Well, apart from the muff shot and things like that — but let’s not go there (laughter) — there was a patch of time when I was in my 30s and just started [being offered] a whole string of roles that basically involved saying to a man, “Please don’t go and do that brave thing. Don’t! No, no, no, no, no!†That’s a trope, the stock woman who says, “Don’t do the brave thing.†I said no to all of them. I’m so proud.
Later, on some of the difficulties facing actresses:
Are there roles you won’t play?
THOMPSON: Well, apart from the muff shot and things like that — but let’s not go there (laughter) — there was a patch of time when I was in my 30s and just started [being offered] a whole string of roles that basically involved saying to a man, “Please don’t go and do that brave thing. Don’t! No, no, no, no, no!†That’s a trope, the stock woman who says, “Don’t do the brave thing.†I said no to all of them. I’m so proud.
And finally, on what it’s like to work with Meryl Streep:
Are there roles you won’t play?
THOMPSON: Well, apart from the muff shot and things like that — but let’s not go there (laughter) — there was a patch of time when I was in my 30s and just started [being offered] a whole string of roles that basically involved saying to a man, “Please don’t go and do that brave thing. Don’t! No, no, no, no, no!†That’s a trope, the stock woman who says, “Don’t do the brave thing.†I said no to all of them. I’m so proud.
What, you thought Jennifer Lawrence invented being funny and rad in interviews?