Dame Emma Thompson has shared her disdain for hearing her film work described as “content”.
The Oscar-winning actor and screenwriter was a guest speaker at the Royal Television Society conference last week, where she reflected on the current state of the film industry.
Per Variety, she told those in attendance: “I think the relationship between the executives and the creative branch just has to be much, much closer.
“To hear people talk about ‘content’ makes me feel like the stuffing inside a sofa cushion.”
“Content,’ what do you mean ‘content’?” she continued. “It’s just rude, actually. It’s just a rude word for creative people.”
Addressing the students in the audience, she added: “You don’t want to hear your stories described as ‘content’ or your acting or your producing described as ‘content.’ That’s just like coffee grounds in the sink or something.
“It’s, I think, a very misleading word. And I think it’s one of the things that maybe the language around the way in which we speak to one another, and the way in which the executives speak to creatives, the way in which we have to understand one another and combine better.”
Later in the conversation, the Love Actually performer also shared her thoughts on the ongoing actors’ strikes in the US.
“Everyone is affected,” she opined. “You know, I’ve been writing to friends who are crew people, who are costume people, who are make-up people who aren’t working. It’s a very, very, very hard time, people are suffering so much.
“It’s sort of hidden, as well, because there’s something about the words, ‘Oh, well, an actors strike’ that doesn’t sound the same to people as ‘the doctors are on strike’ or ‘the miners are on strike.’ It’s got a different feel to it because we don’t work all the time and I suppose that’s the point, we’re self-employed.”
Dame Emma has spoken out on several occasions about the current state of the movie business, including when a number of her peers have questioned the work of intimacy co-ordinators on film sets.
In recent years, she has appeared in the Disney origin story Cruella, the divisive rom-com White Christmas (which she also wrote) and the comedy-drama Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, for which she was nominated for a Bafta.