Kristin Scott Thomas reveals she is quitting film
Kristin Scott Thomas has been patient long enough, and she no longer has time for acting. In a new interview with the Guardian, the 53-year-old "English Patient" star has announced that after 30 years, she is effectively done with the big screen. She made the decision in September 2013.
"I just suddenly thought, 'I cannot cope with another film,'" the actress said. "I realised I've done the things I know how to do so many times in different languages, and I just suddenly thought, I can't do it any more. I'm bored by it. So I'm stopping."
But it isn't just the boredom that is getting to her -- it's also the amount of work she has had to put in beyond actual acting in more recent productions, which include Nicolas Winding Refn's "Only God Forgives," Ralph Fiennes's "The Invisible Woman," and various smaller French films.
"The kinds of films that I do are usually quite rapidly put together, and it always seems to be a little bit of a shambles," Scott Thomas explained. "I like filming, but what I don't like is having to rearrange things and rewrite scenes. I just can't be bothered."
The Oscar nominee also admitted to the Guardian that she is often brought in as a big name on smaller productions.
"They need me for production purposes, basically. So they give me a little role in something where they know I'm going to be able to turn up, know what to do, cry in the right place," she said. "I shouldn't bite the hand that feeds, but I keep doing these things for other people, and last year I just decided life's too short. I don't want to do it any more."
Thomas can be added to a growing list of actors who have turned their back on Hollywood. After his notorious plagiarism controversy, 27-year-old Shia LaBeouf announced in January on Twitter that he was "retiring from all public life." Meanwhile, 21-year-old Irish actor Jack Gleeson, better known as King Joffrey in "Game of Thrones," has announced he will no longer be acting after his HBO series ends.
"The lifestyle that comes with being an actor in a successful TV show isn't something I gravitate towards," Gleeson told the Independent.
While Scott Thomas has admitted she will continue to make films she "absolutely can't resist," it is the stage that she is now gravitating towards.
"Basically, when you are acting in a film, you're giving the director the raw material to make the film. But when you're acting on stage, that's it. And that's when you discover that you can really do it," Scott Thomas told the Guardian. "It's this word 'trust' that keeps coming to me. It's not a question of whether one person is conning you into thinking you can do it, saying, 'Oh, it was beautiful.' On stage, if it works, it works."
