‘I’ve completed my career’: Kristin Scott Thomas on the ‘joy’ and ‘acceptance’ that comes with being in her 60s
The actress chats to Elizabeth Day about her career highlights, and the many things that make her grateful to be ageing
Beloved actress Kristin Scott Thomas speaks so openly and eloquently about the challenges she's faced in life, often speaking out about her difficult childhood and the grief she's spent years navigating after losing both her father and step-father at a young age.
She's also eager to talk about her career highlights, and the joy of finding love again in her 60s, after the resentment she felt when her first marriage broke down after 17 years.
She's recently appeared on Elizabeth Day's How To Fail podcast, and spoke about feeling like she's "completed" her career, and how ageing has led to her to be more "brave" and full of "joy and acceptance" than ever.
When asked if she feels "more joyous" than a decade ago, Kristin replies, "I do, because I've found love which is a wonderful thing to happen, and I've also managed to complete things within my career."
Expanding on this, she explains that after working on herself with therapists to move forward from the tragedy of losing close family members, she's also come full circle with completing tragic performances.
"I've done tragedy now - I've emptied the bag, and there's no more left," she says, adding "I don't have to weep for a dead father ever again," both on or off screen.
Speaking about the positives ageing has brought her, the actress shares that now she's older, "I certainly enjoy things more, I'm able to enjoy things more, I'm allowed to enjoy things more."
Kristin does say that she doesn't know whether this feeling comes simply from being more mature, but shares, "I'm brave enough to try things out - I'm brave enough to accept things and brave enough to do new things."
Talking of reclaiming the tragic narrative of her life, the actress says people often feel "flummoxed" when they find out about her story, and how she lost her father at the age of five and her step-father at the age of 11.
Kristin recalls that when she was a teenager, there wasn't the therapy and support available for her to work through it herself.
"I wasn't able to get over that for a very long time," she shares, adding, "I didn't really do anything about it until I as 30, and by then I had two children."
She says having her children allowed to see areas in her life she was "sabotaging," because of the "enormous grief that hadn't been allowed out." This led to many years of therapy to find a level of acceptance relating to what she'd gone through.
Her feelings also infiltrated her career. "I'm so good at playing someone with longing or a secret sadness," she says, and that also comes from years of having to hide her feelings.
The actress shares that she found it easy to play these complex characters with big secrets, because they allowed her to let some of her real emotions out, while the camera between her and everyone else, "wasn't going to judge me."
