People In Long, Happy Marriages Tell A Lot Of BS

As an actress she often plays posh ladies in frocks, but privately Emma Thompson is loud, angry and radical. William Langley talks to the British Dame about the secret to a happy marriage and her heartbreaking new role.

Emma Thompson has a new look, but the sound is familiar. Impervious to interruptions, immune to hesitation, it whoops and loops in elaborate conversational circles before finally giving way to a re-application of peachy-coloured lipstick. “Bugger. Worn it all off. Think I’ve been banging on too much,” she says.

Banging on is one of the things Emma has done brilliantly down the years. She not only has opinions on everything, but the verbal virtuosity to ensure they are fully and inescapably broadcast. In the past, her fondness for saying what she thinks has landed her in trouble, with critics labelling her “the most annoying woman in Britain”, but the actress isn’t listening, and today, reassuringly, there is something else she wants to talk about.

First, though, that new look. The familiar, layered blonde hairdo has given way to a shorter, silvery pixie-cut, and around Emma’s slinky, yogatoned form is draped a multi-tiered, ankle-length outfit from the cult London design house Egg, whose customers include British Prime Minister, Theresa May. Emma is approaching 60, a Dame of the Empire, and the style seems to say that she has reached a more serious stage of her life.

The roles, too, reflect a subtle change. In her new film The Children Act, adapted from a novel by Ian McEwan, she plays a High Court judge, confronted by moral dilemmas at work and a sex-starved husband at home. To prepare for the part, Emma spent months watching up-close how the law works, and found many of her comfortable assumptions challenged.