The Franco-British actress embodies Diana Taverner, the MI5 operations chief, for two seasons, in “Slow Horses” on Apple TV+.
by Thomas Sotinel
Without the pandemic of Covid-19, without confinement, Kristin Scott Thomas would never have met Diana Taverner, the chief of MI5 operations, which she has embodied, for two seasons, in Slow Horses (the first two episodes From the second season are available on Apple TV+, Friday December 2). At the beginning of 2020, the Franco-British actress, who, these days, resides in the Rutland campaign, not far from London, was preparing to go on the stage of the National Theater to play Phèdre, in an adaptation of Simon Stone. The tragedy was swept away in the turmoil, to the great regret of Kristin Scott Thomas, who says while sighing: “And, here, I did that instead. It is a kind of compensation. And then, anyway, Working with Gary Oldman [who plays Jackson Lamb, the spy put on the closet by his hierarchy, who maintains ambiguous relationships with Diana Taverner], is happiness. “
It’s been a long time since the interpreter of the English patient (an appointment to the Oscar, in 1997) had not played in a series: “I did it at my beginnings, in miniseries, when millions people were watching the same thing, at the same time on their television. Today, we see that on a phone. “Despite this reserve, Kristin Scott Thomas accepted the proposal to join the Slow Horses team without great hesitation : “It’s another way of working that intrigues me, the long form. More than the character, that’s what interested me, to do something that was going to last for years, to belong to a kind of Company. If there is something I don’t like in cinema, it’s the lonely side. “
And then this character is not devoid of appeal. An elegant and cold woman, whose professional position is only known, wedged between her band of uncontrollable spies and political authorities hardly worthy of confidence. “With Gary Oldman, with whom I have a kind of complicity in play, we manage to find stories [on our characters] that we can suggest, she explains. We feel at home, even if she is Very ambitious, a form of frustration, weariness of politics, that many people will understand. But I am not in love with Diana Taverner as I have been in love with some of my characters, in the past. “
“you have to do quickly”
She may have her glory to significant roles in very consensual films, four marriages and a burial (1994) or the English patient (1996), we must not underestimate the sense of adventure of Kristin Scott Thomas. She had embarked on the cinema under the direction of the most incongruous directors, Prince, who offered her the first female role of Under the Cherry Moon (1986), one of the most spectacular failures in the 1980s. This Who did not prevent him from immediately correcting his trajectory, working under the direction of Jean-Pierre Mocky, Pascal Bonitzer, Brian de Palma, Lucian Pintilie, Robert Altman, Catherine Corsini and Nicolas Winding Refn. “I have always done lots of things that bring me to places where I am not necessarily very comfortable,” she notes.
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