Kristin Scott Thomas is reveling in making her directorial debut, but is skeptical about whether or not she enjoyed pulling double duty as an actress. Thomas recently helmed her semi-autobiographical feature “My Mother’s Wedding,” which she cowrote with her husband, Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait. She also stars in the film as the titular “mother” character, a surrogate for her own mom; Thomas’ onscreen daughters are played by Scarlett Johansson (who just made her own directorial debut with “Eleanor the Great”), Sienna Miller, and Emily Beecham.
“I’ve been curious about [directing] for a very long time,” Thomas told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve worked with a lot of directors who were actors at some point, and that is always really interesting for me, an actress, because they see both sides. They see what it’s like to be in front of the camera, and they see what it’s like to be behind the camera, the prepping.”
Related Stories
She added, “I find it very difficult to actually get my head around the fact that I made the decisions. That was really hard for me, because for so long, I’ve been in the position where I am being driven rather than driving. That was quite hard.”
It was also difficult to act in her own film: “It was so hard [directing myself],” Thomas said. “I never want to do that again! It’s just so difficult giving other actors what they need, and at the same time, observing them.”
“The English Patient” star cited how “My Mother’s Wedding” became a “very affectionate, freewheeling film set,” especially because it was shot “very local” without a lot of traveling necessary between scenes.
“It’s all the things that you find out being an actress, the stuff that’s really tricky,” Thomas said. “[It] was a difficult corner for me to turn — to stop being apologetic. ‘I’m really sorry I’m asking you to do this.’ No, they’ve agreed. They’ve turned up. They’re happy.”
She continued, “I’m completely in my element when I’m on a film set. I’ve been doing it for such a long time I’ve practically grown my own battery pack in the back of my skirt. Scarlett and Sienna were both child actors, they were all very comfortable on that set. We just became this little gaggle of women. … It was a very happy film set.”
