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Kristin Scott Thomas
| Biography |
Ms. Scott Thomas was born in Redruth, Cornwall (in southwest England, very close to Land's End!) on May 24, 1960. Her father, a pilot in the Royal Navy, was killed in an accident when she was five years old; her mother remarried another pilot six years later who subsequently died in a similar mishap. Growing up primarily in a rural environment as the eldest of five children, Kristin has said that she was "incredibly shy and unsure of myself."
An interest in acting from an early age lead to a year in drama school at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, though her mother preferred for her to attend a university. As a practical matter she enrolled in a teaching course, but her determination to pursue acting finally won out despite, or perhaps in spite of, a teaching instructor's unbelievably harsh pronouncement that Kristin had no talent and should "stick to the amateur-dramatics society;" surely an example of nurturing and inspirational pedagogy at its very finest.
Needing a break from this oppressive attitude and environment, Kristin went to visit a friend in Paris, intending to stay for a couple weeks. As it turned out, she found work in the city as an au pair for a supportive family who encouraged her desire to act. Still in her teens, she re-enrolled in drama school -- this time in Paris's École Nationale des Arts et Technique de Théâtre -- and found her calling. Her drama teacher helped her find her first job in theater; she somewhat self-deprecatingly adds, "It helped that I was something exotic in France -- a funny little English girl."
Kristin's major cinematic debut came in the Prince's Under the Cherry Moon in 1986. She was originally called to try out for a minor character, but her reading of the leading lady in auditions was so compelling they offered her that part instead. 1988 saw her in a film adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust, and a noticeably British cast after years in France: "I was a bit intimidated at the prospect of working with all these British actors. I don't have any real training; I did most of my study in France, where they don't have the same British method of acting. I thought everybody would be doing voice warm-ups before each take." Handful turned out to be less formidable than she feared and her portrayal of Lady Brenda Last remains one of her most compelling. A steady series of roles in films and television, primarily in Europe, followed until the smash international success of Four Weddings and a Funeral -- for which she was awarded a BAFTA and an Evening Standard Award for Best Actress as Fiona -- in 1994. Other noteable roles include agent Sarah Davies in Mission: Impossible (1996) and her Oscar-nominated role as Katharine Clifton in The English Patient (1996).
She presently lives with her husband, François Oliviennes, and their three children on the Left Bank in Paris. |
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