Kristin Scott Thomas

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0:48Sometimes a brilliant actor plays who they are, and sometimes who they are not. The world knows my friend, Kristen Scott Thomas, as a brilliant actor, often playing characters who are strong, steely, and determined. Fiona in four weddings and a funeral, Catherine in the English Patient, and most recently Diana Tavener in Slow Horses. She is strong, steely, and determined, but she is also warm. She's funny, and she's empathetic. A rare woman. Sitting here today in the River Cafe, Kristen is basking in love and the joy of just a few weeks ago marrying the editor and my friend John Mickelswaite. Kristen loves good food.

1:25In fact, the last time I saw her perform in the theater, I greeted her backstage. I'm in awe of your performance, Kristen, I said. Good to know, Ruthie, but I'm starving. Let's have something delicious for dinner. A rare woman, indeed. So, beginning at the beginning, so you grew up, your parents, four sisters and brothers? Yes, I have two sisters and two brothers. And my mother brought us up by herself, mostly, because my father was in the Navy and was killed in an air accident. and he was a pilot. You know, he flew planes for the Navy. And then my little, and after his death, my little brother was born and then my mother married again to another pilot.

2:11She had a child with him and then he was also killed. So, yeah, by the time I was 12, I'd lost two fathers and my mother was battling on at 33 with five little children. Do you have any memories of your father cooking or your stepfather cooking? No, I have memories of my father eating. Do you? What are they? Current buns on a Wednesday. Okay, tell me about that. And I still get quite sort of... Yeah. In those days, the bread was delivered because we lived in the country, and the baker would come around in his van, and on Wednesdays it was current bun day, and you'd get these big, very plain buns, but with currants in them as their name would suggest and um I remember him delivering and he the baker delivering and daddy was about to go off to work because he was night flying or something so he was in his uniform and we pinched the buns before mummy could appear and it was like a secret thing that we ate we ate the buns in secret before she could get there um and that was a great moment that I've treasured, you know, because it's one of the rare memories that I do have.

3:24So this sort of sneakily eating something, which perhaps shouldn't be encouraged. No, but I think if your father does it before he's coming up, it's a kind of rebellion. Rebellion, a sort of disobedience, which was just, it was great. It's a great memory. And food in the house? Food in the house was, she loved cooking. And I think it was a way, it was slightly sort of meditative for her. I think it was a way of escaping. When her husbands were alive or after the tragedy? Well, after it all went south, so to speak. I think she enjoyed it because it kept her busy. It was useful, obviously, because she had to feed her children.

4:07And she was very inventive and had grown up in Africa and grown up in Hong Kong and was very curious about different flavours and curious about everything, actually. I remember one year her going, macrobiotic, which was hell. Was that in the sort of 70s? In the 70s, yeah. Everything had to be. Brown rice, yeah. Lots of brown rice. Lots of brown rice, yeah. And raisins. Did she cook food from Hong Kong or from Africa? No, she did quite a lot. My granny lived up the road, and my granny did a lot of South African cooking. Was she South African? Yeah. Oh, I see. So she did a lot of South African cooking.

4:45What would that be? And that would be things like bobotty or what they call curry, which is the most extraordinary thing with a brilliant array of all sorts of things. I think they called it mandalay curry or something. Anyway, it was a sort of colonial dish that had picked up bits from all over the world, really. When your father and your stepfather died, did you feel that in your mother's cooking? You said it was kind of therapy for her. Well, it's difficult to say, really, because I was at boarding school most of the time. Do you remember the food there? Oh, yeah, it was awful. I don't think I've had anyone say that they had a great time eating at boarding school.

5:22No, it was just grim. What is it? You pay all this money, you Brits? I don't know. I think in America it's probably the same thing. You know, they just don't think children do. What was it like? When I was at prep school, boarding school, because my stepfather was in the Navy, we had to be put into boarding school when we were really little. Basically I was eight. Which is great, young. I became institutionalized at eight. and literally did not, just would not eat. And the nuns who were looking after us were very, very sweet, and they thought all children loved sugar. So they would put sugar in the teapots and give us tea with sugar in it, pre-sweetened tea for breakfast.

6:01And since then, I just cannot drink sweet. Oh, it's put you off it. Forever. I can't stand it. Do you have a sweet tooth at all? Yes, I love cake. Do you like desserts? You like cake? And currant buns? Currant buns, cake. I love sweet things, but I don't like hot drinks with sweet drinks. I don't like sweet drinks. Mealtimes, there can be families getting together and talking and laughing and recalling things, or it could be a kind of tyranny where you had to come to the table, you had to... That was what it was like at school. At home it was very, very joyous, I could say. are there many memories of your father or is the food memory the one that sticks the food memory is a good one I have got a few and actually that's we were talking earlier about my film My Mother's Wedding and that is how the idea to make a film came to be is because I wanted to hold on to these memories and I wanted to make little animated films of these memories that I have of my father up to age 5 Yeah, well, because I'm, yeah, I was, well, five and a half, six.

7:11So, you know, I have maybe half a dozen little sort of vignettes that I could, little stories that I can tell. And I wanted to give these to my siblings because they don't really remember. Then you were the oldest. I was the eldest, yeah. So that's how the film came to be. And then I was persuaded to integrate them into a larger story and make a story about three women. and it's them going home for their mother's wedding and the shenanigans that ensue. And when you went off on your own after boarding school and you came to London, was that a revelation of what food could be? Did you eat in Greek or did you start going to it?

7:52Not really. I mean, I went to France very young and I was an au pair girl so I used to cook for my charges. And then I learnt a lot of my French through cookery books. They gave you recipes? Well, they would have recipe books in their house that I would sort of browse and think, what does appahay mean? Yeah, yeah. What on earth is this? Was it in Paris? That was outside of Paris, and then I moved into town more. But I did a lot of the shopping, so I did all the market, going to the market every day. It was totally a different experience from being in a home or being in boarding school. Yeah, I loved it.

8:35You embraced Paris. You cooked for these children. You lived. You went to the markets. But was there anything apart from family? But were there foods that you missed? Well, sort of stodgy English things I really missed. I missed sort of... Pastry? Pastry. Like suet pastry, you know, like a beef pudding or something. Oh, steak and kidney pudding. It's not steak. Delicious. What do you like about it? I love kidneys. Do you make it? But then I discovered, better than steak and kidney pudding, is when you get the whole thing of kidneys, and you cook them, and you do them with mustard. But that's French.

9:14That's French. In France, though. So I got there with these longings for these English things, and then discovered, you know, the French way of doing it. I actually quite like that. I sort of prefer it. And I lived in Paris. We went, I like brains. Oh, I don't like brains at all. We see them in little packets. Guess what? We went to a butcher where he brought up a head. he brought up the head of the veal and then first time ever I was probably 22 and Richard said let's have brains I said okay we'd have them in a restaurant and I went to on the Rue Rennes Bouteau there was a butcher and he brought up the head and he took the brains out oh no that's awful I couldn't handle that that was a bit hard yeah but kidneys are very good kidneys are delicious and they look they look sort of vaguely unidentifiable oh and what about in the butcher's tray whereas brains in those little baskets they put them in.

10:02They did, yeah. So just thinking about, there you were in Paris. There were so many films we could discuss and what it was like. But of course, one of the ones your relationship with, Prince. Oh, Prince. Yeah. How did you meet him? I auditioned for a role in his film, which was a supporting role. He was making the film in France, and they were looking for English-speaking actresses who could play these smaller roles, the supporting roles. And so I trot along to the Crayon Hotel to do this audition. And then suddenly there's a sort of huddle behind the camera, a lot of whispering. And they say, would you be interested in auditioning for the lead?

10:42And I said, oh, I thought the lead had been cast. Well, so I did and I got the part. And I went home sort of slightly reeling from all of that. And the phone rang and it was them saying, Prince wants to meet you. I mean this was just insane for me I was 23 so the idea that this man this god, this demi-dieu wanted to meet me was just extraordinary and you became friends we became friends I mean he was very different from me it was quite difficult to be he was such a genius I mean a proper genius played so many instruments had his entourage he had this whole thing going on which was sort of a big rampart around him of people and managers and all this kind of thing so it's quite difficult to get to know the guy and we were children I mean not we're children we weren't we weren't children you can't say we were children but virtually 23 he was 24 I was 23 and he'd been given this enormous production with these oscar-winning heads of departments and it was all huge and he was a musician yeah you know he was very creative and he had lots of ideas he would watch 70s sort of 70s b films italian made b films all dubbed really really badly he loved those but we did we did become friends and he didn't eat no he did not eat i remember going to a restaurant with him in Nice.

12:26It was very late at night and he'd managed to get it opened for us. Anyway, we go in, the whole place is empty and he sits down and I take a look at the menu, get awfully overexcited about what's on the menu. This looks great. And he says, no, I just want an omelette. Can you just make me an omelette? Nice and greasy. And it was so It's quite disappointing. Yeah. I think that eating is one of the most basic privileges and joys that we have. So let's just do it. Yeah. It's great.

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14:27Plus, they're earth-friendly and trusted by over 200 ,000 happy customers. It's time to upgrade to a stress-free, mess-proof sofa. Visit washablesofas.com today and save. That's washablesofas.com. Offers are subject to change, and certain restrictions may apply. Parking shouldn't slow you down. ParkWiz gives every driver a shortcut. Book ahead, save up to 50%, and skip the hassle of circling the block. Park smarter, park faster. ParkWiz. Download the ParkWiz app today and save every time you park. You could start, if you could read, the recipe you chose. Oh, yeah. The recipe you chose from cookbook one, the first cookbook.

15:09I think it is. It is. My copy is extremely battered and held together by tape, so it must be quite old. It's a nice way to look at a cookbook. I know, I love it. And I love it when they've got sort of slightly crusty pages and a stain, and you know this is your favorite because it's spattered with something. We have a chocolate cake from, I'll show it to you, from a cookbook. And we had it, Rose and I had it. And honestly, there is so much chocolate on the page that you cannot, you really can't read the recipe. So here we are. Okay, so this is pork cooked in milk, which sounds awful, but it is the most delicious thing.

15:43So it's one two kilo boned pork loin, rind and fat, very important. Two tablespoons of olive oil, 50 grams of unsalted butter, five garlic cloves peeled and halved, a large handful of fresh sage leaves. I love sage. I do too. It's just my favorite. Isn't it? Yeah, I love it. one and a half liters of milk and the paired rind of three lemons with the pith removed i like scratching the pith of lemon peel as well it's strange things one gets up to in the kitchen so generously season the pork heat the olive oil in a saucepan that's large enough to hold the pork brown the meat on all sides and then remove pour away the fat melt the butter in the pan and add garlic with the sage leaves before the garlic begins to color return the pork in a separate pan, heat the milk to warm but not boiling, add enough to come to three quarters of the way up the pork.

16:40Bring gently to a boil. You have to be quite careful because it over boils quite quickly. And it goes over. Yeah. Add the lemon rind and reduce the heat. Place the lid on the pan, slightly askew, and very slowly simmer for about two hours. And resist the temptation to disturb the meat that's also very important when the pork is cooked the milk will have curdled into beige nuggets carefully remove the meat slice it quickly and spoon over the sauce thank you that is yummy this is yummy and the thing that you don't one of the reasons you don't want to disturb the meat is then you disturb the curds yes because it's all kind of sticky and yeah and it's a very tuscan dish i haven't ever really lived in italy but i've spent a lot of time there because when i was living in france because i lived in france for 42 years we would spend every summer all august in italy and because the french film industry is quite closely linked to the italian film industry we do quite a lot of co-productions and things like that when you were in paris did you go out to restaurants a lot quite a lot um but there again you know i love i i'm very happy cooking in Paris because I like being able to run downstairs and buy really great stuff so easily.

17:59The man I married and had children with was, I think obsessed is not the wrong word. I think it's not far off that, but really, really, really interested in food, food provenance, food quality, and he loves to eat. And his family brought him up with that background. with that sort of, yes, kind of. So you married into a French family. A French-Jewish family. So I got a whole new thing with Eastern European food, you know, the gefilte fish and the blinis. And it was all such a treat and an eye-opener, and I just loved all of that. His granny, my ex-husband Francois, Francois' granny was a very good cook, and she longed for her Polish, Jewish-Polish food and taught me how to do gefilte fish, taught me how to do chicken soup.

18:58Oh, she can make gefilte fish. Yeah, I have done. I mean, I have got the recipe somewhere. I grew up with that food as well because my grandparents were from Hungary and from Russia and the first sort of immigrants coming, that wave of immigrants and that. I just loved all that. They brought it with them. And his other granny taught me how to make cheese blintzes. Oh, yeah. deliciousness and every Saturday we would go it was such a cultural sort of shock to me we would go to this tiny tiny tiny little restaurant with about four or five tables in the seventh on the corner of the rue Saint-Dominique I can't remember the name of the lady who ran it but she was a survivor and had had her tattoo her sleeves rolled up her tattoo She was older.

19:44Numbers. Yeah. And we would have blinis and smoked salmon and egg salmon. Caviar. Yeah, the caviar rouge. We'd have that and little shots of vodka every Saturday with his maternal grandmother. So it was really a sort of ritual and a celebration and a kind of claiming of something, which I didn't really notice at the time. It was just something that we did on a Saturday morning. But I loved it. Loved it. And also, I think, again, it goes back to grandmothers and history and memories, and they came to Paris as a way of escaping Germany. Yeah, they were escaping. Well, different parts of different families, but a lot of them came to escape the Nazi regime, regime and others came to escape the pogroms from the north and then you had your own children that i have my own children what was that like that was a mixture babies in france i had a baby in paris i was at the clinic belvedere oh very smart he was really no i was in l 'hôpital public madame this place was like it was like staying at the ritz no i know but uh yeah did your husband And cook?

21:04He was food obsessed. Not really, but he would travel, you know, he'd travel across Paris for a tomato. So he would do the sourcing for you. He would do lots of shopping, yeah. So you would bring up these three children in Paris, acting when they were growing up? No, I started acting, well, gosh, this sounds awful. When my first child was born, well, I was actually pregnant when I shot, what was it called? A handful of dust. Do you remember that film? Yeah, of course. It was great, that film. There's a pork pie in there. Yeah. I don't remember the pork pie. There's a pork pie or a beef pie. Yeah.

21:42And I had to go and I was broke and I had to go and ask the pie stand man for a pie. I'll have a pie, please. Pork or beef? Yeah. Pork, I think. Probably because it was cheaper. Cheaper, yeah. Every time my siblings saw it, they'd weep. because they thought I was hungry so you were acting so I was acting I was carrying Hannah while I was acting which made it quite difficult with girdles and things and when she was only about three weeks old I took her on her first aeroplane flight and brought her to London to do promotion for the film and in fact on the first night I remember it was Phoebe Charles Sturridge's wife Phoebe we both had children at the same time because Matilda is the same age as Hannah and we parked them in a it was for the first act we were both nursing our children we had to rush back mid premiere plug our babies in yeah there you go and unplug them and rush back it was fun it was such fun yeah yeah babies and para sounds good completely you have to be so it was so complicated to be sort of film actress on one side, promoting something and glamorous as you possibly could manage.

23:05And on the other side, you know, mummy and nursing. And it required great sort of agility, brain agility, really.

23:19If you like listening to Ruthie's Table 4, would you please make sure to rate and review the podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.

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24:21That's why over 200 ,000 happy customers have made the switch. Upgrade your space today. Visit washablesofas.com now and bring home a sofa made for life. That's washablesofas.com. Offers are subject to change, and certain restrictions may apply. Parking shouldn't slow you down. ParkWiz gives every driver a shortcut. Book ahead, save up to 50 % and skip the hassle of circling the block. Park smarter, park faster. ParkWiz. Download the ParkWiz app today and save every time you park. We will have a moment on slow horses. Yes. You know, we love, I love slow horses. I have to say, you can hear my voice that I'm addicted.

25:03I love it. And I think about it, I see you in it. and Gary Oldman. And it just feels like, is it a good crew to be working with? It's a great group. I mean, we've been working together now for nearly four years. Did you know him before? Gary? Yeah, because we did The Darkest Hour. Of course you did. Yeah, the Churchill. Yeah. Did you know from the first day that you were going, this was something that you... Well, when I read the script, the pilot script, I thought, this is really good. Had you read the books? No. I haven't. No. Yeah. I didn't know the stories particularly. I've been longing stability and not tearing around the world and being able to sleep in the same bed for more than two weeks.

25:43Oh, bliss. And this is that sort of job. It's the same people behind the camera for four years. It's been the same. Same people in makeup. And so much life happens in those four years. People have died. People have been born. People have got divorced. People have got married. This year we've had two weddings. We had Jack's wedding and my wedding. And your wedding. And what did you have for your wedding? Tell me about the wedding day. The wedding day. Okay, so we had coronation chicken. Ah. I know. It was a treat. It was absolutely delicious. And she made little tiny bits. Where was the wedding?

26:23It was up in Rutland. Is that where John's family is from? Yeah. Do you know, for my wedding present, my sister got all the family recipes that my mother had collected from my great-grandmother in Scotland to the other one in wherever. I mean, all over the place. And scanned them all and made them all into a book, photographed them, and then gave us all a book. What a great present. It's a fantastic present. It's a history, isn't it? Yeah. It's a biography, a memoir. It's fantastic. It's your mother's, your grandmother's, and your great-grandmother. My mother, my grandmother, my great-grandmother.

26:58Great-grandmother. When did she have been? But on both sides. Wow. On both sides. Yeah. But I love to cook. Do you? Yeah. Tell me about it. I have to say I'm out of practice now and I long to get going again. And there are places that I like to cook in. For instance, we have a sort of family house in Burgundy. And I love to cook in that kitchen. Why? Because it's really well organized, even though you probably wouldn't say that. No one else would say that. But I know exactly where everything is. I know where the lids are. And the big lid and the small lid. and we've collected from various sort of sales, auction house sales or whatever, you know, junk sales, good pans, you know, cast iron pans, clean them up, use them.

27:45Very few things we bought new in that house. You know, it's all sort of gathered. And then there's the granny stuff, you know, when the granny died, then we got all this other stuff. And so it's got plenty, lots and lots and lots of utensils. And then, of course, you go to the market there and it's just unbelievably delicious. So you just want to buy everything. What city are you in? It's near Joigny in Bourgogne, in Dolyon. What is the regional food of Bourgogne? What are they? They do, well, obviously snails, and they do a lot of gibier, and they do a, what's gibier in English? Game. Lots of cheesy things.

28:25So what do you cook when you're, do you have things that you go to straight away when you get there? I liked cooking. I like cooking. My favorite thing to cook in that kitchen, of all, is a pantadouche, which is guinea fowl cooked in cabbage. Do you do it in the whole leaves? I do it in a cocotte. Yeah. And I quarter the cabbage, blanch it, and then I pack it around the guinea fowl. I haven't made that for years. Oh, it's so good. I love that. I used to do it with pheasant as well. Yeah, with pheasant it works really well. Pheasant and cabbage. thanks for reminding me really good so i think if we're talking about you're actually it's nice because we're talking about food and family and food and friends and so if i were to ask you kristin scott thomas for your last question i hope to do this again if you needed comfort from food was there food you would go to there is and there are there are actually two versions of it because there's a french version and there's an english version so i'll start with the english version because it's the oldest, but that is very strong brown bread, a big, thick slice of it, and some good butter and a cup of tea.

29:40That's heaven for me. And the French version of that is just a slight upgrade, basically. Half a pint of beer, half a baguette, good butter, slice of ham and cornichons. You've got to have cornichons. But what are they called in English? Cornichons. Pickles. little pickles gherkins gherkins you've got to have the gherkins and that's happiness definitely well thank you very much that was really nice thank you is there anything that we get a round of applause I like that not everybody gets a round of applause

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31:09It's time to upgrade to a stress-free, mess-proof sofa. Visit washablesofas.com today and save. That's washablesofas.com. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. parking shouldn't slow you down park whiz gives every driver a shortcut book ahead save up to 50 and skip the hassle of circling the block park smarter park faster park whiz download the park whiz app today and save every time you park this is an iheart podcast