Dame Kristin Scott Thomas thinks her move into directing "became a bit of a joke".
The ‘English Patient’ actress has moved behind the camera with ‘The Sea Change’ – which is adapted from Elizabeth Jane Howard’s novel – but she admits getting the project moving was a long and frustrating process.
She said: "It’s very, very frustrating. You have to have nerves of steel. [It took so long that it] became a bit of a joke – ‘Kristin’s directing this film,’ ha ha. It’s a life’s work."
Kristen, 58, admitted her own experience has given her a new appreciation for her Oscar-winning movie ‘The English Patient’, which was adapted from Michael Ondaatje’s novel.
She said: "Now I know how difficult it is to do an adaptation of a brilliant novel. The adaptation of ‘The English Patient’ is just so beautiful – it’s like a cousin, it flows alongside the book."
Kristen got her big break when the late pop icon Prince cast her in his 1986 directorial debut ‘Under the Cherry Moon’ and though she admits it was "not a good film", she praised the project as "brave" and the ‘Raspberry Beret’ hitmaker as "extraordinary".
She said: "Prince was amazing. He’s someone to miss. He was extraordinary, really extraordinary. I was thinking about how, when I made that film, it was a love story between a white girl and a black guy, and that is something that’s still really difficult to do now: that was 30 years ago. No, it didn’t do well. It was not a good film. Sorry!
"But it was adventurous. It was brave, it was completely its own thing."
Kristin Scott Thomas needed nerves of steel to direct
