{"id":68324,"date":"2025-08-08T19:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T19:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/68324\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T19:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T19:43:09","slug":"emma-thompson-on-the-dead-of-winter-locarno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/68324\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Thompson on \u2018The Dead of Winter\u2019: Locarno"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEmma Thompson<\/a> has gone from snowy landscapes to sunny pastures. The star plays a widowed fisherwoman who travels alone through snowbound northern Minnesota and interrupts the kidnapping of a teenage girl, portrayed by Laurel Marsden<\/a> (Ms. Marvel<\/a>), in her latest film, The Dead of Winter, directed by Brian Kirk<\/a> (21 Bridges<\/a>, The Day of the Jackal<\/a>, Penny Dreadful). On Friday, though, she discussed the movie in summery Locarno<\/a>, Switzerland during a press conference at the\u00a078th edition<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0Locarno Film Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the film, Thompson\u2019s character faces a huge challenge. \u201cHours from the nearest town and with no phone service, she realizes that she is the young girl\u2019s only hope,\u201d explains a synopsis.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhy start this action thing when you\u2019re 66?! That\u2019s just stupid,\u201d Thompson told the press in Locarno on Friday, earning laughter.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe cold and action scenes meant she was trying to get ready by being in the best physical shape possible. \u201cWe spent a long time getting spent a long time getting used to the cold\u201d in Finland, she also shared. <\/p>\n

\n\tHow were all the action scenes? \u201cThe one thing that really scared me, genuinely scared me, was not running about, although I did pull every single muscle in my body, but holding my breath underwater,\u201d Thompson shared.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne item of clothing was particularly key. \u201cThe making of this movie was mostly about gloves,\u201d the star said, drawing more laughs. \u201cWe had to have three pairs of gloves because what does she do when she shoots the gun? She can\u2019t shoot the gun with the big gloves, so we had to have [different] pairs of gloves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAbout her character, Thompson said: \u201dThis woman\u2019s life is an ordinary, humble life,\u201d and she is taking risks for a younger person because she feels, \u201cI am able to let it go\u201d if needed. \u201cThis woman was a real heroine \u2026 formed by weather,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n

\n\tThompson added: \u201cI think of her as someone who has had a really full, rich, happy life. And that was one of the things I loved most. We seem to be telling an awful lot of stories about the super-rich, we seem to be looking at a lot at the darker side of human nature, and kind of wanting to take our revenge. There are so many things, not only in film, but also on television, about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHer daughter Gaia Wise, who plays the younger version of Thompson\u2019s character in the film, said she loved bringing to life \u201cwhat she experiences, and the trauma that she goes through, and seeing how from that, she becomes this woman who is capable and able and willing to sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWritten by Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb, the film also stars Judy Greer, Marc Menchaca, Thompson\u2019s daughter Gaia Wise, Lloyd Hutchinson, and Br\u00edan F. O\u2019Byrne. Thompson is also an executive producer on it. <\/p>\n

\n\tLeeb said the heroine was inspired by his aunt, with Kirk recalling that when he read the script, he loved this \u201cfully formed character\u201d who was \u201cnot a superhero\u201d but a person \u201cout of her depth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKirk, in a director\u2019s statement, describes The Dead of Winter\u00a0as \u201ca merciless kidnap thriller, set in the epic snowbound wilderness of northern Minnesota, with a beautiful love story at its heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThompson touted Finland where the movie was shot, telling the press: \u201cFinland is so fabulous. You all have to go!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThompson\u00a0is also in Locarno to receive the Leopard Club Award<\/a> on the Swiss town\u2019s picturesque Piazza Grande square Friday evening, before the movie\u2019s world premiere.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe is the only person in the history of the Academy Awards to have won for both acting and screenwriting,\u201d Locarno organizers highlighted about the U.K. star in unveiling that she would receive the honor. \u201cThompson\u2019s willingness to take risks with her roles has meant that she has remained a vital force on stage and screen for four decades, a testament to the depth of affection multiple generations of fans hold for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThompson \u201cembodies the best of a tradition of performers who continue to be able to infuse each role with the deepest knowledge about the actor\u2019s work,\u201d said Locarno festival artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro<\/a>. \u201cWorking with writers as exceptional as she herself is, fearlessly tackling ever-changing registers and characters, moving from Shakespeare to James Ivory, from the magic of\u00a0Harry Potter\u00a0to the transformations of\u00a0Nanny McPhee, she has continued to surprise audiences over a career that has earned her numerous awards, including two Oscars, two Golden Globes, three BAFTAs, a Golden Lion, and an Emmy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Thompson has gone from snowy landscapes to sunny pastures. The star plays a widowed fisherwoman who travels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[49736,236,38548,88,2091,49737,44824,44825],"class_list":["post-68324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-brian-kirk","tag-celebrities","tag-emma-thompson","tag-entertainment","tag-international","tag-laurel-marsden","tag-locarno","tag-locarno-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}