OPINION | Jesus Murphy I love Emma Thompson.

Emma Thompson, one of the first ladies of the British film scene (and a huge Hollywood star), is a powerhouse actor, writer and producer. She has a degree from Cambridge University, and acute sense of good comic timing. She has worked in film, television and on stage, speaks French and Spanish. Oh, and she has won two Oscars, and she’s got a kid and a husband to boot. How can you not love her? Unless of course you hate her for making you look like a big fat slacker.

Emma Thompson in Love Actually.

Super-star, super-mom, Thompson shirks Hollywood convention and the überhot likes of other over 40 stars (Diane Lane comes to mind) by actually daring to look her age and continuing to work. And she isn’t afraid to make fun of her body a little. Originally slated to star in Basic Instinct, she backed out but wasn’t shy about commenting on Sharon Stone’s performance, saying, “she was shagging Michael Douglas like a donkey, and not an inch moved. If that had been me, there would have been things flying around, hitting me in the eye.”

Thompson is simply infinitely likeable.

In addition to being funny (she used to be a stand-up comic), she’s a master of the dramatic role. In 2003’s Love Actually – a largely mediocre film – she pulled off a heartbreaking performance that made spending $12 to see it worthwhile. She’s also a trailblazer; in 1983 she co-wrote, co-produced, and co-directed Women’s Hour, Cambridge’s first all-female revue.

She has married and divorced the talented, but annoyingly obsessed-with-Shakespeare Kenneth Branagh. And she is the only person in history to have won Academy Awards both for her acting and her writing. Her first golden man came in 1992 for her role in Howard’s End, her second in 1996 for her screenplay for Sense and Sensibility, which, incidentally, was her first attempt at a screenplay. She’s also one of the only eight people to have been nominated for both a supporting and lead acting Academy Award in the same year. Phew.

Perhaps most charmingly, despite an extremely active work schedule, Thompson really does seem to place her family before her career.

She lives across the street from her mother and down the street from her sister. Thompson waited until she was 40 to have her first child (Gaia, born in 1999) and that same year, turned down the fabulous cameo role of God in Kevin Smith’s Dogma in order to concentrate on her family. She is currently starring as Prof. Sybill Trelawny in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – a role she accepted to impress her daughter (thanks Gaia).  – Jennifer Selk

More baby journalism from Jen is here.

A version of “I love Emma Thompson” was originally published in the Vancouver Sun, June 2004. See below.

Published June, 2004 in The Vancouver Sun.