Emma Thompson -- 20 april 1995

• Emma Thompson (1959) is een Britse actrice. In 1995 hield ze een dagboek bij tijdens de opnames van Sense and Sensibility, een film naar het boek van Jane Austen, van regisseur Ang Lee.

THURSDAY 20 APRIL: Up 7 a.m. after a fractured night's sleep. Very cold. Found two lambs in the road, tried to get them back to their mother and failed horribly. Left them bleating fero-ciously at us from the middle of a bush. Porridge, toast and a large pot of tea during make-up. Sore hairpins, very long lighting job. Edward finds Elinor crying for her dead father, offers her his handkerchief and their love story commences. Ang [Lee] very anxious that we think about what we want to do. I'm very anxious not to do anything and certainly not to think about it.
I've ink everywhere from practising with quills. Kate very calm and happier today, I think, now she's up and running. Indoors, thank God, all day.
The morning flew by with Hugh, who is as great an actor as I've always thought. So light and yet very much felt. He's made Edward rather troubled and halting, almost a stammerer. It's particularly good because it illustrates how relaxed he feels with Elinor, with whom he can be both funny and fluent.
Harriet (Waker) has chosen a dog for Fanny. It's pointy and shakes all the time. In her close-iip we all had to wave cake at it to stop it staring into the camera or at its owner. Didn't faze Hat for one second, but the dog thought we were mad.
I've learned that Hugh and I caused Ang great suffering the other day. He has never had any actor question anything before. In Taiwan the director holds complete sway. He speaks and everyone obeys. Here, actors always ask questions and make suggestions. In this instance he'd designed a particular shot where Elinor and Edward walk through the gardens at Norland talking. Hugh and I were concemed about shooting (or 'covering') their expressions as there's so little time in which to see these people fall in love and the shot seemed too far off to capture them. In the event his idea was much better than ours, but that we should have had an idea at all came as a genuine shock and he was deeply hurt and confused. Better today, after Lindsay and James explained that these were perfectly normal working methods. We talked and I think he feels easier. I feel terrible - as though I've ruined Ang's first day by not being sensitive enough to his situation. It must have been terrifying — new actors, new crew, new country and then us sticking our oars in.
Chastening to realise yet again how much I have to learn about being too impatient and overwhelming. Bed in a heap of rubble.