Kristin Scott Thomas on Her Directorial Debut, 'My Mother’s Wedding'

When perusing Kristin Scott Thomas’ impressive C.V. of film, television, and theater roles, it’s very clear that she’s the rare performer who’s been able to maintain a certain je ne sais quoi through the entirety of her career. She exudes a worldliness while being vulnerable, yet comes across as whip smart and still accessible. Perhaps her mystique is due to her gift for playing aloof so well, or her four decades of residing in France, where maintaining a sense of privacy is highly valued. Or maybe, Thomas was just deemed forever exceptional from the moment Prince hand-picked her to star in his 1986 directorial debut, Under the Cherry Moon (now a cult fav). 

But Thomas has worked hard to earn her status as a well-regarded thespian. One brave enough to tackle Chekhov on the stage many times, and can also turn a supporting role in Four Weddings & a Funeral (1994) or lately as M15 spook Diana Taverner in Apple TV+’s Slow Horses into something very memorable, indeed.

Not one to rest on her laurels, in 2022 Thomas decided to co-write, direct, and act in her first original feature film, My Mother’s Wedding (out in U.S. theaters starting Friday, August 8, 2025). She cast herself as Diana, the matriarch to three adult daughters — played by Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, and Emily Beecham — all of whom are still wrestling with their childhood traumas and current messy personal lives as they visit their mother for her latest marriage. Thomas also infused some of her own history, weaving in her personal experience of losing her father and her stepfather to separate aviation accidents when they were pilots for the Royal Navy. 

Telly Visions recently caught up with Thomas during her U.S. press tour for My Mother’s Wedding, where we discussed the unique choices in her acting career, what prompted her to be so personal with her directorial debut, and how the experience has shifted her approach to roles now. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Telly Visions: As an artist, you’ve had a very bilingual career, acting regularly in both English and French-language films. What did living in France and seeking out French projects afford you as an actress that might be different from your peers’ experiences?

Kristin Scott Thomas: I spent a lot of time making films in France, as you say, and they've been incredibly formative and very influential on my career, and in how I've developed, I think. My first film was shot in France, but it was an American film, which is the one I made with Prince and has since become a kind of cult classic. We shot that in France. I lived in France and grew up there, essentially. It's a very, very important part of my life. My cinematic taste and culture are based in France, I think. For 42 years of my life, I have lived in a city where there's a movie theater on every corner, showing everything you can see, absolutely everything, at any time. It's an extraordinary place for people who like movies, so that's where it all began, I guess.

I think that instead of making one or two movies a year, I tend to make four in two different careers. I played very different roles in my French career from my English career. My English career tended to be slightly more typecast than I would be in France. I would play these aristocrats, or whatever I would do, but they would always be somewhat brittle. In France, they didn't notice those things. In France, they had a much more open acceptance of people with foreign accents. 

If you think of the actors who have French careers but who are not French-born or whose mother tongue is not French, you think of Claudia Cardinale, Romy Schneider, Jane Birkin, Charlotte Rampling, and Stacey Martin, now. They're all great people with fantastic careers in France and French cinema, but it's not their mother tongue. I think they're very welcoming to all, and I was fortunate to have enjoyed that privilege.

TV: I’m always curious about when someone starts a new life chapter. Regarding acting, some never want to venture outside of performance. Was it always an ambition for you, and did you work up to it in any particular way?

Scott Thomas: It was a slow burn, I think. I've always been interested in why you put the camera here or there. But I've never really understood editing. I've known how it works in theory, but I've never really understood the strength or the power of it. That has been an enormously important part of this experience for me, learning how it works. Luckily, I had a great teacher in Joan Sobel.

But I think [writing] crept up on me. For quite a long time, I've had various projects that, for X or Y reasons, never really got off the ground. Then this [idea] turned up. I think Pavel Pawlikowski said to me, the old saying, "Write about what you know best." He said, "You should write about your career as an actress." I thought, “Oh, I don't want to do that.” But then I started to think about it, for personal reasons related to my family and memories of my father, and how I would love to turn them into little animated films. I had this plan to keep as a sort of a record, my memories, because I'm the eldest of [my siblings] who lost their father and their stepfather as very small children, so I possibly had the most memories. I decided that's what I wanted to do, make them into little animated short films. 

It was then suggested that I develop that into a feature. So I thought, “Oh, this is fun.” I can sort of invent a whole story around this, and it doesn't have to be about me. It can be about a family that experiences this, and how each member navigates it differently. Three daughters have lived the same experience, and they all navigate it in a different way, and that's what I felt I could talk about. 

TV: When you were putting thoughts to paper with the three daughters, were you exploring different facets of yourself or amalgamations of your siblings?

Scott Thomas: No, no, that would have been a disaster! Actors are magpies, right? We take a little bit here and we listen to that, and think, “Oh, I like the way she said that…” So, we are magpies and we're also mynas. When writing these women, I drew on my own experiences and incorporated elements from others to create them. In one version of the screenplay, there were many more. Then, in another one, we cut it right back to one. These things develop and change. We experimented with different ideas, and this is the one we settled on.

TV: Speaking of the writing, this is the first screenplay for both you and your now-husband, John Micklethwait. How was that process as a creative couple and first-timers writing together?

Scott Thomas: He often works with another author, who writes books about geopolitics, so he was very used to that. I've never done it before. I'd never written anything before. He was good at structure and big ideas; I was able to take those big ideas and make them consumer-ready, I would say. I'd make them easily digestible and more easily... actable, I think, by bringing them into the real world. We enjoyed working together. I think if he were here, he would say the same thing. I love teamwork, which is probably why I love filmmaking and theater so much, because I love working with other people. I would be miserable if I were sitting all on my own at five o'clock in the morning saying, “I have to do four hours of writing!”' That would never work for me. I need to collaborate with others to refine my ideas. Another thing I've noticed is that I never sit still. I mean, I'm amazed I'm sitting still for this. I usually have to pace. I found that to be the case when I was behind the camera as well. I started to move around and follow the actors around. It drove them mad.

TV: One of my favorite scenes in the film happens in the graveyard, when your character confronts all three daughters about their romanticizing of their fathers to the detriment of their current relationships. It’s honest and a showpiece for you and your cast. Was that heavily drafted?

Scott Thomas: It was very heavily written. We both felt that we needed the mother to be honest about it. We needed her to come up with a conclusion. I was struggling with this in the screenplay, so I said to John, “Go away. Write something really important, as you’ve got the big ideas, and then I’ll read it and see what I think.” He did, and then we were able to go from that. He wrote these beautiful things, and we managed to turn them into something that wasn’t too pompous, yet relatable and easy to understand. It was brass tacks and down-to-earth. People have picked up on that scene and enjoy it. 

There are one or two phrases in there that I think are profound, without being pompous and lesson-giving. Like, when Diana says, “Stop caring about the children you were and start paying attention to the children you have.” It’s this simple line, but it’s very powerful. What I wanted during that was for her to be on this rant, and for us to be looking at how this rant is affecting these girls as they realize, “Oh yes, I see what she’s saying.” 

I think it’s a powerful moment when you realize that your parent, or somebody who has more experience than you, says something that rings true, and it sinks in. Those are the moments that I wanted to catch on screen. Because of the actresses that I had — I’m thinking particularly of Emily Beecham in that scene — she manages to portray that thought process and how it just washes through her face. It’s extraordinary.

TV: While you were shooting and promoting My Mother’s Wedding, you were also working on several seasons of Slow Horses. I’m curious if the experience of writing and directing changed how you saw or played Diana Taverner?

Scott Thomas: When you are an actor who's been doing it for such a long time, like I have, you jump from project to project very easily. Whether it's theater, doing a one-woman show, or Chekov with 12 people on stage at any given moment, you become pretty good at changing hats. 

It was interesting how I became increasingly interested in the technical aspects of Slow Horses. I became more interested in the camera work, so it did change me a little bit. But it is a very, very different job, and I have a very different purpose there. I'm working with such extraordinary people on Slow Horses. All the crew and technicians are amazing, as are the actors. I'm in a very privileged position to be on that show. However, I do have a slightly different perspective on what's happening now. I think that's the way to put it. 

My Mother’s Wedding is out in theaters in the U.S. starting Friday, August 8, 2025. Slow Horses Season 5 premieres September 24, 2025, on Apple TV+. Seasons 6 and 7 are already greenlit.