Kristin Scott Thomas has said it was a shock to learn other people in the UK felt differently about Europe when the result of the Brexit referendum came in.
The actress was in the midst of a 12-day shoot on her new film The Party, in which she plays a politician who has just been made a minister and is hosting a celebratory dinner, when the vote for Brexit was announced.
Scott Thomas, who has spent much of her life living in France and has made films on both sides of the Channel, said it significantly impacted the tone.
Kristin Scott Thomas and Cillian Murphy (Ian West/PA)
Arriving at the film’s premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, she told the Press Association: “What happened during the shoot changed the atmosphere quite drastically.
“For a start so many people on that set are Europeans and we all felt very European and it was such a shock that other people in Britain didn’t feel the same way as we did because it seems to be so obvious, which is of course the theme of the film.”
Cillian Murphy, who is among the guests at the disastrous dinner alongside Timothy Spall, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson and Bruno Ganz, said the result cast a sombre tone on the production.
Cherry Jones (Ian West/PA)
He said: “It’s a divided country. It was such a close result and democracy works and that is the way it had to be but on our set people were profoundly affected and sad and shocked and then there were people who were delighted and so you have to accept that and try to process it.
“It’s our duty as artists to shine a light on what is going on, or hold a mirror up to society, it’s not up to us to tell you how to feel.”
American actress Jones said it was “fascinating” to watch the results of the vote.
She said: “I will never forget, we would drive about an hour to the studio every morning and every driver we had had emigrated from another country and every driver was voting to leave and that is when I thought ‘I don’t think Remain are going to win the day’.
“I know after that beautiful MP was killed, Jo Cox, I think everyone thought that would really kill it but then that day we came into work and everyone was in tears and in shock, as much of the country was.”
:: The Party is released in UK cinemas on October 13.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here