Pemberley (Lyme Park, Cheshire)

Pemberley (Lyme Park, Cheshire)
Oh, to be in England...

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Sophie Thompson- Actor of the Week

Sophie Thompson onstage in Clybourne Park

Sophie Thompson is one of my absolute favourite actresses. Her smile and her eyes are so expressive and she seems to truly inhabit every role she is in. She comes from a very talented family, as Emma Thompson is her sister and Phyllida Law is her mother. But she is a force onscreen in her own right.


Sophie Thompson as Lydia in Four Weddings and a Funeral

Bernard: How's it going, Lyds?
Lydia: Bloody awful.
Bernard: Oh dear, what's the problem?
Lydia: I was promised sex. Everybody said it. You'll be a bridesmaid, you'll get sex, you'll be fighting 'em off. But not so much as a tongue in sight.
Bernard: Well, I mean, if you fancy anything, I could always...
Lydia: Oh, don't be ridiculous, Bernard. I'm not that desperate.


Sophie Thompson as Miss Bates in Emma with her mother Phyllida Law as Mrs. Bates
  
Miss Bates: It left us speechless, quite speechless I tell you, and we have not stopped talking of it since.

Sophie Thompson as Mary Musgrove in Persuasion

Mary Musgrove: Are you coming in, Henrietta, or is my cottage insufficiently grand for you?

Sophie Thompson (second from left) as Dorothy in Gosford Park

Dorothy: I believe in love. Not just getting it, but giving it. I think that if you're able to love someone, even if they don't know it, even if they can't love you back, then it's worth it. 

Sophie Thompson as Mafalda Hopkirk in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

She even got a small part in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 as Mafalda Hopkirk. And she also plays Hermione Granger pretending to be Mafalda Hopkirk...oh, it's complicated!


Emma and Sophie Thompson as teenagers

In the old family photo above, you can see that although there is a family resemblance, their eyes are totally different. Sophie has the wide open eyes that gave Lydia from Four Weddings and a Funeral her wonderful look.

Sophie Thompson and Richard Lumsden at the Olivier Awards 2011 (Sophie was nominated)
Sophie lives with her husband Richard Lumsden in London with their sons Ernie and Walter. She met Richard on the set of Sense and Sensibility. He played the coxcomb Robert Ferrars, brother to Hugh Grant's character Edward Ferrars. Her sister Emma married Greg Wise, who played Willoughby in S&S.  Up until recently, she lived on the same street as her mother and her sister. She moved all of a mile away!

I am now going to pop in my recently arrived DVD and see her in The Young Visiters (written by a 9 year old, hence the spelling). Also starring Jim Broadbent and Hugh Laurie, I can't wait to see if she is frumpy or glam. She can do it all!

5 comments:

  1. She also plays Moxie in a movie version of 'Relative Values' with all sorts of wonderful people in the cast. Julie Andrews, Stephen Fry, Colin Firth, William Baldwin.
    And it's based on a play by Noel Coward.

    I absolutely love Sophie in Persuasion though, she is simply amazing. ^_^

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  2. Persuasion is one of my very favorites - it took me two viewings to finally realize that Mary was Sophie Thompson! She was incredibly different than other parts I had seen her in. It was fun to see her pop up in the Harry Potter movie! I nudged my husband in the theater, whispering to him "That's Sophie Thompson!" Of course, he was probably thinking "Who the heck is Sophie Thompson?" LoL!!

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  3. @Azuretherial- I have almost rented Relative Values a few times. If I knew Sophie Thompson was in it, I definitely would have picked it up! Shall do now.

    @MelMel- She is almost unrecognizable in her various roles. It took me a while to figure out that she was in Gosford Park. And her scene with Tom Hollander is one of my faves in the film! I got excited to see her in Harry Potter too. I don't have young kids to drag to the Harry Potter films anymore so my hubby goes with me. He's glad they are over now. :)

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  4. I love this actress. She has such expressive eyes and has a subtle comedic talent. Love the pic of the Thompson sisters as teenagers.

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  5. she is a chameleon actor-- it takes me a while to recognize her in different roles.

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