Kristin Scott Thomas Reflects On “My Mother’s Wedding,” Screenwriting, And Learning From Robert Altman

Opening in theaters August 8, My Mother’s Wedding centers on three sisters (Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, Emily Beecham) who return to their childhood home to celebrate their mother’s (Kristin Scott Thomas) marriage. The movie marks the feature directing debut of Kristin Scott Thomas, and she talked to Deepest Dream about that experience. Plus, if you want to see which of her own films she recommends, check out the interview!

Question: Hi Kristin. Pleasure to meet you.

Kristin Scott Thomas: Hello.

Question:  I know all day you’ve been getting questions about working with Scarlett Johansson in The Horse Whisperer with Robert Redford. But because your film is such an ensemble driven project, what did you learn from Robert Altman (Gosford Park) who was so good at working with a talented ensemble? Is there anything, looking back on that experience?

Kristin Scott Thomas: I’ll tell you a story about Robert Altman. Robert Altman once came onto set and he was unhappy about something. Something we’d all done and we were all on set.

He gathered everybody around. He was very tall. “Come around, come around” and he goes, “One of you is the missing link.”  Meaning that one of us wasn’t doing their job properly. And so we all kind of went, “I better get my act together and behave and do a good job.

He was a very good leader. So what did I learn from him? He told me to play every scene, even the ones that were sort of faintly comedic – to play them as they were deadly serious. That’s what I learned from him.

Question: I found your film to be very evocative and resonant because it, one of the themes is it’s okay, it’s great to love people  who have passed, but what, what about pouring your heart and soul into your loved ones in the present?

Did that that theme grow out of your screenplay, or was that always there from the get go?

Kristin Scott Thomas: When you’re trying to figure out what you’re trying to say, it’s one of the things that floats to the surface. There’s a very good line in there, which is “Let go of the children you were, and pay attention to the children you have.”

And I think that, that we also, we all have a tendency to kind of lament our own trauma. It’s very fashionable at the moment to think about how we all suffered as children and we were misunderstood, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But there is a way through that and it’s very good to be self-aware and to understand where one might have got bashed or bruised. But it’s not a good idea to kind of dwell and hang onto those pains. It’s a good idea to let go of them, and that’s sort of what I’m trying to say in the film.

Question: As far as finishing screenplays, I’m sure there are many writers out there who have found it sort of a really hard mountain to climb.

Are these people in general overthinking things? How did you approach completing your screenplay?

Kristin Scott Thomas: It is hard. It is very difficult. I mean, this is the first time I’ve ever done anything like that. So, you know, it was all new to me and I had to be guided by people who knew better and driven by our producer and people who were able to help us get to that point.

It was very difficult and my advice to anyone on their first time is to watch lots of films and listen to other people. Listen to what other people have to say. It doesn’t mean to say you have to do exactly what they say, but it’s always interesting to have other people’s opinions.

Question: I really love that scene where the three sisters, they’re having an argument and everything has to be kind of pretty much in frame, but you’re also giving a lot of attention to each of them. What was the key to shooting that scene? Because it seems very ambitious and hard to shoot.

Kristin Scott Thomas: Yeah, it was quite hard to shoot. The key to it was that I had an amazing DOP (Yves Bélanger) who’s just fantastic and works a lot with the camera on his shoulder. So he was very, very helpful with that. But we shot them all individually, and we took a long time over it.

They had different goes and they tried different things and we were quite free with it really.

Question: Thank you so much for your time and as, as you’re going, very quick question. I know this is impossible, but from your body of work, can you recommend to our listeners a movie of of yours that you feel is underrated and you would like them to see and what makes it special?

Kristin Scott Thomas: Oh, I love Sally Potter’s film The Party. Love that film, and there’s a French film that I really, really, really love called Leaving. Those are my perhaps . . . not underrated because they were greatly appreciated, but they’re worth revisiting.

Question: Thanks again. Really love your film.

Catch My Mother’s Wedding in theaters start Friday, August 8! 

For weekly movie reviews, check out our CinemAddicts Podcast: