{"id":199001,"date":"2025-10-14T15:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T15:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/14\/dame-emma-thompson-became-an-actor-by-accident\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T15:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T15:26:09","slug":"dame-emma-thompson-became-an-actor-by-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/14\/dame-emma-thompson-became-an-actor-by-accident\/","title":{"rendered":"Dame Emma Thompson became an actor &#8216;by accident&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"byline\">\n<p>        <time itemprop=\"datePublished\" content=\"2025-10-14\" datetime=\"1760455569\" pubdate=\"\">14 October 2025<\/time>\n    <\/p>\n<p>Dame Emma Thompson never intended to go into acting.<\/p>\n<p>                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"image-caption landscape\">Dame Emma Thompson didn&#8217;t plan to have an acting career<\/p>\n<p>The 66-year-old star has enjoyed a glittering career on screen and stage \u2013 winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the 1992 film Howards End \u2013 but was fearful of entering the &#8220;precarious&#8221; profession.<\/p>\n<p>Emma, whose parents Eric Thompson and Phyllida Law are both actors, told HELLO! magazine: &#8220;I didn&#8217;t grow up wanting to be an actor at all. It always seemed like a rather precarious job to me \u2013 and it is! I remember wanting to be a hospital administrator at one point.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But then, somehow, I became a comedian. Acting came to me from that, rather by accident. I never intended to be doing this for a living, but it&#8217;s worked out rather well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Emma&#8217;s latest film role is alongside her daughter Gaia, 25, who she has with husband <a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/greg-wise\/\" class=\"exposure-link \" data-linktrack=\"LinkTracker,articleExposure,greg-wise\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Greg Wise<\/a>, in the action thriller Dead of Winter and she found the picture to be &#8220;physically demanding&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Harry Potter star said: &#8220;I had to exercise and get fit. There was a lot of running about, which I&#8217;m really not used to.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;It was physically demanding, so much so that I must have pulled pretty much every muscle in my body at some time or another \u2013 but I loved it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nEmma explained that the physical challenge was exacerbated by the fact that the film was shot in bitterly cold temperatures in Finland.<\/p>\n<p>\nShe said: &#8220;It was -27C at times. I&#8217;m English so I thought I was used to the cold, but you&#8217;ve never experienced cold like that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Love Actually actress recalled an underwater scene with co-star Judy Greer that was particularly difficult.<\/p>\n<p>\nThompson recalled: &#8220;We trained for weeks with an amazing man called Kirk Krack (a freediver).<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;It was so hard at first, but by the end of those few weeks we could hold our breath underwater for three or four minutes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nEmma thinks her role in Dead of Winter highlights the diverse range of characters offered to older female performers.<\/p>\n<p>\nAsked if mature stars are being given better roles, she said: &#8220;I think so. I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s eye-wateringly more. It&#8217;s not like: &#8216;Oh my God, thank God!&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;But I&#8217;ve always been a character actor, so I&#8217;m not having to let go of any ideals of beauty or body. I think that can dog you.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;I&#8217;ve done more interesting roles in my sixties than at any other time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!-- Pagination --><\/p>\n<p><!-- playbuzz --><br \/>\n<!-- end playbuzz--><\/p>\n<p><!-- \n\n<div data-cn-project=\"femalefirst\">\n    \n<\/div>\n\n --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n<!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/celebrity\/dame-emma-thompson-became-actor-accident-1431384.html?f=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>14 October 2025 Dame Emma Thompson never intended to go into acting. Dame Emma Thompson didn&#8217;t plan to have an acting career The 66-year-old star has enjoyed a glittering career on screen and stage \u2013 winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the 1992 film Howards End \u2013 but was fearful [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":199002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[130,12721,12723,12724,11581,12722],"class_list":{"0":"post-199001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-dame-emma-thompson","9":"tag-eric-thompson","10":"tag-gaia-wise","11":"tag-greg-wise","12":"tag-judy-greer","13":"tag-phyllida-law"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}