Campaigning for Oscars made Emma Thompson “seriously ill”
The actress Emma Thompson has said that her previous efforts of campaigning for an Oscar had made her “seriously ill”. Thompson had been speaking on The Radio Times podcast, where she suggested that trying to win an Oscar was “horrible”, and that she had something of an “allergy” to it.
“Both times I had to do the Oscars, I got ill, quite seriously ill, before and during it,” Thompson said. “I just found the pressure of it and the glare of it too much. It’s sort of astonishing – and then you think you want to lie down in a dark room. You think, ‘Please don’t ask me any questions or make me talk about myself’.”
“It’s horrible,” she added. “I quite quickly developed a sort of allergy to that, but it’s sort of part of the job.” Thompson has been nominated for five Oscars, winning ‘Best Actress’ in 1993 for her role in Howard’s End and taking ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ in 1996 for Sense And Sensibility, making her the first person to win an Academy Award for both acting and writing.
From there, Thompson went on to discuss her career arc and success. “Fame doesn’t happen overnight; it’s gradual,” she admitted. “I’m lucky from that point of view; I think it must be awful if you have to deal with being James Bond or one of those people who really can’t go anywhere. To lose your anonymity completely. It’s not very pleasant for you or the people around you.”
She added, “If that’s what you want, to be recognised, then I suppose you can deal with it, and it’s not so intrusive. But it’s not what I wanted, and I think it’s a highly toxic condition.” Evidently, given the comments above, Thompson certainly does not enjoy the limelight of celebrity, even if she is surely grateful for her success in the industry.
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