Actor Greg Wise, 59, grew up in Northumberland. He met his wife, the actress Emma Thompson, on the set of the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility. They have an adopted son, Tindy, and a daughter, Gaia, who is an actress. He has starred in The Crown and the BBC’s Cranford, and lives in London.
Would you say “nepo baby” to a doctor whose parents were both doctors? No. I was brought up in a house of two architects and I trained as an architect. Our daughter is a young actor. We were never not going to have a daughter who wanted to be an actress. If a household seeps a certain profession through every pore, you’re going to pick up on that as a child. She’s the spitting image of a young Emma, and played her in a film.
I don’t know if Trump had actually talked to anyone in the film industry before he put the tariffs on. [Trump threatened to apply a 100 per cent tariff on movies made outside the States.] I’m sure it made an awful lot of people in the British and European film industries nervous, because some very big American productions are shot in Britain and Europe.
In 1995’s Sense and Sensibility alongside Kate Winslet
ALAMY
It wasn’t love at first sight with Emma because she was married. I was told by a wonderful witchy friend of mine that I would meet my future life partner on Sense and Sensibility. I looked around and thought, the only one that’s available and around my age is Kate Winslet. God love her, she’s gorgeous, but there was no great romance there. I was concerned about my witch friend getting it wrong. But time has said otherwise — Emma and I are 30 years together.
I wouldn’t have been able to be my sister’s full-time carer had I not already embarked on a pretty major amount of therapy. I was very nearly destroyed by it, but I wasn’t. I am in awe of people who can do this year in, year out. I did three months with my sister and it nearly killed me, but she wouldn’t let anyone else in. We are all going to require care. The care system is being hollowed out and we should be putting money and resources into this.
With his wife, Emma Thompson, after she she received her damehood in 2018, and their children, Tindy and Gaia
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It’s part of a young actor’s job now to curate their social media, which makes me weep. I know for my daughter’s lot, if it’s down to two people for a job, the producer will look at their social media, see who has more followers, and will go with that one. I’m so pleased I’m 59, not 29.
One of the things about being a bloke is we’re shit at saying, “I need help,” or, “I can’t do this.” I have broken pretty much every digit, but it’s, “Wrap a loo roll round it. Have a brisk walk. It’ll all be fine.” So I don’t present myself much to doctors or hospitals. This is a guy thing. It’s one of the reasons that guys find out they’ve got cancer at stage 4, because they haven’t wanted to talk to anyone about the lump they found. We’re rubbish at that, but we are particularly rubbish at asking for help with mental health.
On Strictly Come Dancing in 2021 with Karen Hauer
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It’s absolutely extraordinary that IVF exists. We are profoundly grateful that in vitro does work. But something that is about creating a human can be so dehumanising. You’re on the marathon and it’s really, really hard. We were fantastically fortunate that our first attempt proved successful. But then it didn’t work again, and that’s super-hard. You are grieving for a life not created, not lived. There’s no grief ritual attached to it.
Anorexia is a brutal illness. [His daughter suffered from anorexia for three years from the age of 16.] We were very fortunate that we found a great team who were able to help us address it as a family, because it’s a family malaise that affects everybody, not just the person in the white heat at the centre of it.
The standard of costume has improved in the past 30 years. [He starred in the 1995 series The Buccaneers, and now in the Apple TV+ adaptation.] Way back in the day, the hard collars made my neck red raw. This time? Gorgeous. Then I was 27 and the young thruster. To come back 32 years later as the old thruster, being gently referred to as the mature person’s love story, is very funny.
My wife throws dance parties all the time. She’s a huge dancer. I hang out at the back and talk to people.
Greg Wise stars in The Buccaneers season 2. Episodes air every Wednesday until August 6 on Apple TV+