Emma Thompson recently opened up about her screenwriting process, favorite actors and the difference between men and women in films.
Thompson admitted that she is a big fan of Clint Eastwood and said that she grew up watching him act in movies. She claimed that she and her father would watch westerns and that the shows rubbed off on her as an actress.
“I grew up on westerns,” she said “I was very much influenced by that form.”
She said that the films also influenced the types of roles she takes.
You can now listen to Emma Thompson's @BAFTA & @BFI Screenwriters' Lecture http://t.co/VmVg26GMQe #screenwriting pic.twitter.com/Y8UCbuNHL4
— BAFTA Guru (@BAFTAGuru) September 22, 2014
Thompson said that it can be hard to find some types of film roles because many writers feel like women can’t play certain roles that men should play and vice versa.
“Our brains are not [all that] different,” but “essentially the same,” she said. “The Venus/Mars thing is so awful, and writers really have to come to terms with the fact that our brains are essentially the same.”
She said that there are differences in the way men and women handle certain roles and that these differences are the most clear when it comes to comedies.
“I think you need a punch line when you are a boy, because men’s jokes are essentially something that goes on and on, leading to an ejaculation,” she said. “You have to react at the end. You have to laugh at the end.”
She added, “Women’s comedy is more circular,” with little laughs here and there and sometimes a big laugh.” Thompson concluded that the approach to humor “goes hand in hand with our sexual, our orgasmic nature.”
Is addition to acting, Thompson is also a screenwriter and says that she considers all of the above when writing stories and plots of her own. She also said that she often writes roles for specific people.
“I often write a character with an actor in mind, and then never get them for the project”, she joked. “Sometimes it’s very helpful,” even if it is a dead actor.