“The fight sequences aren’t like in ‘The Bourne Ultimatum.’ She doesn’t suddenly turn out to be a judo expert. She just survives,” Thompson told UPI.
1 of 3 | Emma Thompson stars in “Dead of Winter,” in theaters this weekend. Photo courtesy of Vertical
Harry Potter, Sense & Sensibility and Love Actually star Emma Thompson says that even though she plays a woman fighting for her life in Dead of Winter, she isn’t looking to begin an action career at this point of her life.
“It was a very bad idea to start it at the age of 66,” the double Oscar-winner told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
“That’s just stupid, but there you go. It’s nice to be.Reckless in one’s third age, as it were. And since I’m in the youth of old age, what do you do when you’re young? You kind of take risks. So, I thought, ‘Well, I might as well take risks in this bit as well and see what happens.’ And what happens is you get hurt regularly.”
In theaters this weekend, the film casts Thompson as Barb, a grieving Minnesota widow who stumbles across a remote cabin where a middle-aged couple, played by Judy Greer and Marc Menchaca, are kidnapping a terrified young woman played by Laurel Marsden in the middle of winter.
“We had a wonderful stunt team who taught us all that and we had to do those fight sequences over and over and over again. But you go: ‘Well, yes, this makes sense. What else would you do? Your body would react like that,'” Thompson said.
“The fight sequences aren’t like in The Bourne Ultimatum. She doesn’t suddenly turn out to be a judo expert. She just survives by pushing, by kicking by doing whatever she can do to prevent this insane woman from killing her and the girl.”
When Barb initially realizes what is happening, she studies a photo of her late husband Karl before she gets out of her truck to help the young woman
“You can hear him saying, ‘Barb, I don’t think this is such a good idea.’ And she just goes: ‘I know. I know.’ So, you know that there’s a part of her, the part that contains her husband, and still hears him in her head going, ‘This is not necessarily going to turn out well,'” Thompson explained.
“It’s also incontrovertibly true to her, that there is nothing else you can do. She can’t reach anyone,” she added. “I’m sure we would all be the same. She could never leave that child in that situation. She has to act. She can’t get to a town. What are they going to do to her? So, in a sense, she’s bound by every commonplace form of decency there is.”
Barb also knows the frozen landscape well, which is useful as she tries to hide and attack the kidnappers.
“She’s someone who understands how to survive. But she’s also very resilient and her wits are very sharp and sharpened, no doubt, by the adrenaline of the situation,” Thompson said.
“That was one of the things I loved about her — the surprising practicality. She never panics. She just gets on with it.”
Thompson’s real-life daughter, Gaia Wise, plays Barb as a younger woman in flashbacks.
“That was the best bit, having my daughter there. And, also, actually, my husband, her father [actor Greg Wise]. He was there a lot of the time. So, having their support at that time, as well, was extraordinary,” the actress said.
“Gaia and I were able to sort of look after one another and watch one another. And, so, when I watched her acting the scenes of Barb as a young person, her and Cuan [Hosty-Blaney, who plays young Karl], I just got these wonderful memories made in front of me. I found it very touching. It was very meaningful for me.”
For much of the movie, present-day Barb is alone, watching from afar and plotting her rescue.
Thompson said that she was attracted to the sparseness of the script, which called for her to show — not tell — what was going on and how she felt about it.
“I love movies where I don’t have to speak. I love to speak with the face,” she said.
“You can say so much with your face and your thoughts. The camera is such a friend in that sense, because it’s completely different from theater,” she added.
“You can’t do that in the theater. So, one of the reasons I did the job was there wasn’t much to say and I knew I’d get time in this amazing landscape, to become part of the landscape — silent and still and very much knotted and knitted in to the natural world there.”
The actress said she met with real Minnesotans to prepare for her role, even though the film was shot in Finland.
“One of the things I was really passionate to do is make sure that the Minnesotan was real. And I spent months talking to Minnesotans, just conversing with Minnesotans about their lives,” she said.
One of the most important things she learned was which gloves to wear for what temperature and task.
“It’s about love, grief, death and gloves,” Thompson quipped as she listed off the themes of the film.
“Every week, we did 2- or 3-hour talks and, so, the accent kept bedding in, all the way through and I think I got away with it. They’re going to be watching it in Minnesota, actually, this week when it opens. So, I can’t wait to hear what they say.”
