{"id":58832,"date":"2025-08-10T09:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T09:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/58832\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T09:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T09:31:09","slug":"emma-thompson-jokes-she-couldve-changed-american-history-by-saying-yes-to-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/58832\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Thompson jokes she could\u2019ve \u2018changed American history\u2019 by saying yes to Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 cKWiEj\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 cKWiEj\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 cKWiEj\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p>Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/tv\/news\/donald-trump-emma-thompson-date-dinner-1997-sleep-trump-tower-movie-trailer-hollywood-la-a7647341.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Emma Thompson<\/a> reflected on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/tv\/news\/donald-trump-emma-thompson-date-dinner-1997-sleep-trump-tower-movie-trailer-hollywood-la-a7647341.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the time Donald Trump invited her for dinner<\/a>, joking in a new interview that had she accepted the date she \u201ccould have changed the course of American history!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 66-year-old Love Actually star recalled that the incident occurred while she was filming the 1998 political comedy Primary Colors, which was loosely based on Bill Clinton\u2019s 1992 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/awards\/news\/emma-thompson-donald-trump-asked-her-out-on-a-date-1236482993\/\">Variety<\/a> reports that while speaking at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, Thompson remembered: \u201cA phone rang in my trailer, and it was Donald Trump. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought it was a joke. \u2018Hi, it\u2019s Donald Trump here.&#8217; I said: \u2018How can I help you?\u2019 I thought he needed directions. He said: \u2018I would love for you to stay in one of my beautiful places, and maybe we could have dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thompson at that point had been going through a lengthy divorce from her first husband, fellow actor Kenneth Branagh.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI realized that on that very day my divorce has finally come through,\u201d continued Thompson. \u201cI bet he has people looking all over for suitable people he could take out, for all these nice divorcees \u2014 I mean, he found the number of my trailer! That\u2019s stalking! So yes, I could have gone on a date with Donald Trump. I could have changed the course of American history!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MixCollage-09-Aug-2025-01-29-PM-4925.jpg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"'Love Actually' star Emma Thompson says she once turned down dinner with Donald Trump\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE inline-gallery-btn\"\/><\/p>\n<p>open image in gallery<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Love Actually&#8217; star Emma Thompson says she once turned down dinner with Donald Trump (Getty)<\/p>\n<p>Thompson<a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/tv\/news\/donald-trump-emma-thompson-date-dinner-1997-sleep-trump-tower-movie-trailer-hollywood-la-a7647341.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> previously shared the anecdote in 2017<\/a>, telling Swedish television host Fredrik Skavlan: \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do with myself. I was on my own and I just said: \u2018OK, well I\u2019ll get back to you! Thank you so much for ringing.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Skavlan joked:\u201cYou could be the First Lady. You could have stopped him!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2706554.jpeg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Emma Thompson (pictured at the World Premiere of \" love=\"\" actually=\"\" in=\"\" at=\"\" the=\"\" ziegfeld=\"\" theatre=\"\" new=\"\" york=\"\" city=\"\" recently=\"\" joked=\"\" about=\"\" how=\"\" world=\"\" could=\"\" have=\"\" changed=\"\" if=\"\" she=\"\" said=\"\" yes=\"\" to=\"\" donald=\"\" trump.=\"\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE inline-gallery-btn\"\/><\/p>\n<p>open image in gallery<\/p>\n<p>Emma Thompson (pictured at the World Premiere of &#8220;Love Actually&#8221; in 2003 at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City) recently joked about how the world could have changed if she\u2019d said yes to Donald Trump. (Photo by Evan Agostini\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Thompson said at the time that she had still not met Trump in person. The Nanny McPhee star has been married to actor Greg Wise since 2003. They first met while they were filming Sense and Sensibility in 1995.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/emma-thompson-sex-nhs-b2776505.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Thompson told an audience in London that sex should be recommended by the National Health Service because it\u2019s \u201cso good for you\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/emma-thompson-sex-nhs-b2776505.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">She was speaking at a screening of her 2022 film <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/films\/features\/daryl-mccormack-leo-grande-bad-sisters-b2266164.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Good Luck to You, Leo Grande<\/a>, in which her widowed character hires a sex worker (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/daryl-mccormack\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Daryl McCormack<\/a>) to experience pleasure.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson said during the Q&amp;A: \u201cWe need to learn about our own response to: what if when you\u2019re unwell, you can\u2019t make connections, but you need sex? You need sex because it\u2019s part of our health plan, if you like. It should really be on the NHS. It should. It\u2019s so good for you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-58832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}