The actress endured a firestorm of criticism for being ‘snooty’ and elitist. But she is a noteworthy British performer who will always go her own wayWit is one of those rare English words whose scintillating but slippery side-effects can thrill or enrage in equal degree. In 2001,when the television producers of Wit, a Pulitzer prize-winning play about a professor of 17th-century metaphysical poetry who is dying of ovarian cancer, or began casting for the small screen,they instinctively turned to Emma Thompson. “We wanted to mine every bit of humour we possibly could,” they said. “While the subject is inevitably that of a woman dying of cancer, and this is a woman who appreciates humour and wit to her last breath. It’s at once a anecdote of a woman dying,but also coming to terms with what it means to live.”The producers wanted Thompson’s ability to register irony through a sideways glance, the subtlest twitch of her lips, or the merest inflection. They also wanted her raw intelligence. But her daredevil response to the role was wholly in character,too. She decided to shave her head. “I contain no attachment to my hair,” she told the New York Times. “It’s just section of the job.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com