Exclusive: Emma Thompson talks British Rom-Com ‘What's Love Got to Do with It?’
Currently in theaters nationwide from Shout! Studios.is the vibrant, cross-cultural romantic comedy What's Love Got to Do with It?. Directed by Shekhar Kapur and written and produced by Jemima Khan, the film stars Lily James, Shazad Latif, Shabana Azmi, Emma Thompson and Sajal Aly.
How do you find lasting love in today’s world? For documentary-maker and dating app addict Zoe (Lily James), swiping right has only delivered an endless stream of Mr. Wrongs, to her eccentric mother Cath’s (Emma Thompson) dismay. For Zoe’s childhood friend and neighbor Kaz (Shazad Latif), the answer is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an arranged (or “assisted”) marriage to a bright and beautiful bride from Pakistan. As Zoe films his hopeful journey from London to Lahore to marry a stranger, chosen by his parents, she begins to wonder if she might have something to learn from a profoundly different approach to finding love.
Blackfilmandtv.com caught up with Thompson as she talked about her role in the film. A Two-Time Academy Award winner, Thompson was last seen in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and Matilda the Musical. She also played in Baroness von Hellman in 2021’s Cruella.
What went into saying yes to taking on this project?
Emma Thompson: Well, I loved the script. I just thought the script was terrific. It was great about family, about friendship. It was also this character, this totally inappropriate character, who just blurts out stuff and doesn't realize that she's being just actually racist. I think they are still present. I remembered when I was started doing this stuff. I remembered that one of the first things I ever did when I was a youngster, I did a sketch written by a jazz musician, which was based on Lenny Bruce’s How To Relax Your Colored Friends At Parties. So this is a long time ago, right? It's like 50 years ago, I'm doing a sketch about a woman who's having a cocktail party in a posh bit of London. And she's just thrilled because she's got a black person at her cocktail party. And that was what I was doing. It's 50 years ago. Nothing's bloody changed.
I was very lucky because I grew up in a very multicultural place, London. In my primary school, there were 55 different languages spoken, and my primary headmistress was the first woman black headmistress in our country in the 60s. And so I was lucky. I had access, but a lot of people in Great Britain simply don't. And Cath is kind of representative of people who still will use the word exotic.
The film is a comedy as a writer yourself, when you're given the task of landing in jokes, do you go in and say you want to punch it up a bit, or do you just follow what the script says?
Emma Thompson: They were great. You know, Jemima Khan, one of the producers, was great. And Shekhar Kapur was great. They just let me if I wanted to, and Shekhar was wonderful, because he said, "Look, you'd be as funny as you can." But also it has to be completely real. That's the deal. That's why I really enjoyed it that Cath. She really had a capacity for enjoying life. I mean, mostly with a glass of wine and a hand it has to be said. But you also realize that if she hadn't found that family, and they hadn't given her sanctuary. She's a perfect candidate for Alcoholics Anonymous in a couple of years time. Do you know what I mean? When my husband left me for that the teenager,I turned to drink. And in the end, you look at someone who's actually been saved by friendship, and it happens to be a cross cultural friendship, which is all the more beautiful really,
Was there anything you can take from Shekhar’s direction that was new to you?
Emma Thompson: He was great. He comes on and you think he looks like he's just been hit by some sort of whirlwind? His clothes are barely on. It looks like a bomb site. There's a wonderful freedom to say, he says, "Come on, let's just do it. Let's just do it." He gave us actors an awful lot of freedom. He kept on saying “Where's the emotion? Where's the feeling? I just want it to be really felt". So he was never going for anything less than the best he could get emotionally out of us all. And I think he did a really good job.