Kristin Scott Thomas is talented, beautiful, an astonishing actor, one of those people who seems to inhabit characters rather than perform them, and she’s — okay, she’s a fucking goddess is what I really mean. Please go see every single one of her movies immediately. Thank you.
This one (Partir, or Leaving) opened yesterday in limited release:
And this one, I’ve Loved You So Long (il y a longtemps que je t’aime). This is a gorgeous, sad, hopeful, beautiful film.
Kristin Scott Thomas is who I see in my head when I work on my current screenplay. And it’s interesting — imagining a great actor in the role really holds my feet to the fire to write it as best I can, to make the character nuanced and interesting, and give her the highest possible stakes. I always thought that having a notion of a specific actor would limit my work; that I would end up writing a character only one person could play. But I find that having a great actor to visualize compels me to the rigorous liberation of writing something worthy; something excellent; something that rings with truth and possibility. And if I do, the role becomes one that any great actor can step into and make her own.
So I’ll just go on seeing KST in my head, and I hope you’ll go see her on screen. She’s fabulous.