Emma Thompson

We all remember being terrified by Miss Trunchbull when reading Roald Dahl's Matilda, and again when watching the 1996 film adaption of Pam Ferris as the ...

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda the Musical received its West End debut over a decade ago. We all remember being terrified by Miss Trunchbull when reading Roald Dahl’s Matilda, and again when watching the 1996 film adaption of Pam Ferris as the appalling teacher. But fear not, the trailer does not stay scary for long: soon the sing-song and dance moves start.

Irish actor Daryl McCormack has been building a career for a few years now, mostly gaining notoriety in Britain, having taken over the role of Isaiah Jesus ...

It was just a matter of upping my calorie intake just so that I could grow a bit bigger and work out. I think he is very confident in what he does because he has, in a sense, a calling to do what he does. I was actually in lockdown at the time so I had dumbbells in my room and lifting weights there and going for runs. I knew I had to get into a place with regards to my fitness that represented that moment. We only lived 15 minutes away from the set so we’d walk every morning to work and then walk back (at the end of the day). We just made it our mission to stay in that cocoon and that sense of closeness. I think it’s when Nancy tries to prod and become curious about where that wound is and sees an element (of him) trying to keep the mask up, that was extremely fun to play. They’re very subtly written in by our writer Katy Brand. I feel if we were to have jumped around out of chronological order, to access that emotional arc would have been very very challenging. McCormack: I felt that aspect of how much we show and how much we hide was something interesting in Leo because he’s in a professional environment. That was the first step of the whole process. That rehearsal period was super-necessary and fundamental to us growing that bond and growing that relationship. Angela Dawson: Tell me about working on this together with much of the action and dialogue taking place in this one hotel room set. Problem is, the middle-aged mother of two adult children can’t quite get over her own anxiety about engaging in such unbridled sexual pleasure, so it takes Leo some careful coaxing to get her to relax, which is easier said than done.

Emma Thompson shines as a repressed widow who hires a male escort to give her an orgasm.

All this risk-taking and spilling of secrets requires space, and Hyde gives it to them by staying out of the way. The Peaky Blinders vet oozes a velvety and unironic sincerity when Leo is providing the full boyfriend experience. “Do you enjoy it?” “Do you feel demeaned?” “Have you been doing this long?” Leo has faced this line of interrogation before, when the unstoppable force of his charm meets the immovable object of a client’s anxiety. Nancy is a 55-year-old widow awaiting the arrival of a sex worker who’ll hopefully give her the first orgasm of her entire life. Emma Thompson is at her prickly, vulnerable, fiercely intelligent best as Nancy, a stand-in for every woman who’s suppressed her sexuality out of shame, feelings of inadequacy or a need to please others. The male escort assigned to this monumental task is the “aesthetically perfect” young Leo (Daryl McCormack) and, as he’ll learn over the course of their four meetings, giving Nancy a chance to premiere her O-face means breaking down her well-established defenses.

In the newly-released trailer for 'Matilda the Musical' on Netflix, Emma Thompson is totally unrecognizable as Trunchbull.

Lashana Lynch plays the beloved teacher Miss Honey. The trailer itself is set to the musical’s best-known song, “Revolting Children,” as the audience waits in anticipation to see Miss Trunchbull herself. The musical was adapted from Roald Dahl's 1988 children's book, not unlike the absolutely brilliant 1996 movie adaptation starring Mara Wilson, Danny DeVito, and Rhea Pearlman. Matilda is a girl born to two pretty terrible, negligent parents who have no idea how amazing their intelligent, magical daughter is.

Dir: Sophie Hyde. Starring: Emma Thompson, Daryl McCormack, Isabella Laughland, Charlotte Ware, Carina Lopes. 15, 97 minutes. “I want to do a blow job,” ...

Sex work, even among the progressively minded, is still treated as something to be kept out of sight and out of mind. “I made him and I’m proud of him,” he says of Leo. Hyde’s film is generous in that way – it understands that he deserves to feel good about himself just as much as Nancy does. McCormack, meanwhile, does a sublime job of essentially playing two characters: the self-assured and chivalrous Leo Grande, and the man who lives behind him. Empowerment is only one piece of the puzzle, which together forms a refreshingly nuanced portrait of sex work, desire and self-perception. “I want to do a blow job,” Emma Thompson’s Nancy announces in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. “Get that sorted.” She throws those words out as if she were reminding herself to get the oil changed in her car – mechanically, even a little irritably. But there’s a laundry list of sexual activities that she feels compelled to work through, as if they were obligatory steps to earning her womanhood badge.

A two-hander dramedy about sex and aging is a terrific vehicle for the venerable star.

The politics of the movie are a little tricky, to be sure. The sex is her reward for that effort, not really the audience’s. We’re invited in, but only to see what kind of release and freedom may await us should we try to attend to our own unrealized passions. There is nudity and sex—of the sort that we’d maybe once have patronizingly called brave—but it is held, stylistically and smartly, for a crucial moment late in the film. Surely there are struggles in the work, and a sad enough backstory for Leo is eventually revealed. Nancy (not her real name) has hired Leo (not his, either) because her husband has died and she is trying to make up for lost time. But in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (Hulu, June 17) the gag is more softly stated.

This week Claire Gregory, Katie Spencer and Laura Kramer hear from Paapa Essiedu and Caroline Quentin as they express their excitement for their new show on ...

Thompson plays a retired widow who hires a 20-something sex worker (Daryl McCormack) in this deft and pleasurable two-hander directed by Sophie Hyde.

Nancy, having shared at length about her dull job, duller marriage and disappointing kids, understandably wants to know more about the man she’s paying to sleep with. (The fourth act, in particular, leaves no point unaddressed.) But Hyde stages it all with an unfussy elegance that serves the material, and any lingering creakiness is dispelled by Thompson and McCormack, who always seem to be playing people rather than ideological mouthpieces. If that makes it sound stagy and even didactic — you could certainly imagine it working well as a play — well, the message is a worthy one, and all PSAs should be this pleasurable. In one of the film’s funnier exchanges, she reads from a list of sex acts she wants to try out, like a waiter rattling off the nightly specials. Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack) is a sex worker in his 20s, and while he’s had many clients of varying persuasions and proclivities, he has never encountered one quite like Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson), the prim, anxious 55-year-old widow who’s booked him for a high-priced session. The long, oddly charming title of “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” is a line of dialogue spoken near the end of this not-too-long and thoroughly charming British comedy.

In Roald Dahl's original 1988 book and the 1996 film, Miss Trunchbull is the ferocious, tyrannical headteacher at the school attended by gifted young bookworm, ...

Matilda will be released across the UK and Ireland exclusively in cinemas on 2 December 2022. By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice. Thompson has undergone an impressive transformation for the role.

Since the Matilda musical took stages by storm starting in 2010, it was only a matter of time before the tuneful adaptation of Roald Dahl's work became a ...

Filled with an overwhelming sense of justice, Matilda dares to take a stand for what is right and teach Trunchbull a lesson she won’t forget. On meeting her inspirational teacher, Miss Honey (Lynch), Matilda is encouraged and begins conjuring her own fantastical tales. And with Netflix signing a big deal with the Dahl estate, the streaming service is the home for that movie version.

The new Netflix film is based on the 1988 novel by Roald Dahl, but it will have a few key differences to the beloved 1996 film. It will be a musical, and will ...

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In "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande," Emma Thompson plays a retired schoolteacher who's never had good sex in her life — so she decides to do something about ...

"Good Luck to You, Leo Grande" requires a leap on the audience’s part, an acceptance of the inherent theatricality of the premise and a willingness to be romanced and uncomfortable all at once. She is the author of " How TV Can Make You Smarter," and a member of the Television Critics Association and the Chicago Film Critics Association. She is also a producer and co-host for the Podlander Presents network of podcasts. While "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande" could be called a crowdpleaser, it won’t be for everyone. The platform gives fans of entertainment, news and sports an easy way to discover new content that is available completely free. "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande" would make a hell of a play. Consumers can also watch Tubi content on the web at http://www.tubi.tv/. Sense and Sensibility (1995): Other than William Shakespeare, there’s no one more influential on the modern day romantic comedy genre than Jane Austen. And the early 19th century novelist gets one of her best-ever adaptations in this winning romance from director Ang Lee and writer/star Emma Thompson. With its classic story of polar opposite sisters — the reserved, responsible Elinor (Thompson) and the expressive, emotional Marianne ( Kate Winslet) — "Sense and Sensibility" basically delivers two rom-com storylines in one. But as Nancy’s tension eases, Hyde draws nearer, essentially granting the audience a front-row seat to watch Thompson do her thing while at the top of her game. Yet long before those ripples skim across Leo’s surface, McCormack’s contribution to the film is still every bit as vital as Thompson’s. It’s the quality of his attention, an awareness that seems to extend beyond Nancy and right through the screen. And so Nancy sets out on her journey of self-discovery, but the more time she spends with Leo, the more she wants to peer beneath the sophisticated veneer he presents. When a film’s locus is limited in this way, it’s often the result of translation — what was once a play makes the leap to the screen without altering its small scale, for better or worse (or both). But "Leo Grande" didn’t begin life as a play. It has been expanded and republished in light of the film's premiere on Hulu.

Emma Thompson: “Bring the pleasure on.” Oh, yeah, we're going there today. In “Good Luck To You, Leo Grande,” a retired widow, played by the ...

Emma Thompson: “That’s all that you need. Emma Thompson: “There’s nothing else left to do. It’s called “Good Luck To You, Leo Grande,” about a woman who says, “You know what? Daryl McCormack: “I feel very proud of the work we got to do together, and in the capacity that we got to work: very intimately.” In “Good Luck To You, Leo Grande,” a retired widow, played by the one, the only Emma Thompson. I want mine too.”

Emma Thompson deeply enjoyed making her new Hulu sex comedy Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. But the emphasis on intimacy in the film, which is about an older ...

We have to make this and we have to make it right now,” Thompson said. “It was just two of us, and only us,” she said of her experience with co-star Daryl McCormack. “We had preparation, and we had rehearsal. And then they ended up feeling abused, which is in fact what they were,” she said in an interview with IndieWire ahead of the film’s Hulu premiere on June 17.

Matilda The Musical, based off the Roald Dahl novel, has been an incredible success on Broadway and around the world. So much so, that it's being turned ...