Emma Thompson and Meryl Streep – name a more iconic duo. These two powerhouses are brimming with talent and between them have enough accolades to fill a small house, but they’ve also shared something slightly more intimate – a great snog.
In a recent interview with BBC Radio 1 promoting her new film Last Christmas, Thompson answered questions from children, and one of them got quite personal.
When 8-year-old Finn from Glasgow asked Thompson who her best on-screen kiss was, she was quick to give Streep a shoutout. “Meryl Streep’s a very good snogger,” she said. “I had to snog her in Angels in America and she was method about it.”
“There was no stone unturned, my God, that’s for sure,” she said. “Blimey, what is she doing here? Mining for jewels.”
Of course our queen Meryl Streep is not only a great actress but a great kisser as well.
Thompson also offered a little advice for anyone else about to engage in an on-screen pash. “I think the thing you have to remember about kissing someone on the screen – all you hope for is that they haven’t had a tuna sandwich just before the kiss.”
Here’s hoping, Thompson.
It’s not the first time Thompson and Streep have fangirled over each other. When Thompson missed out an Oscar nomination for her role in the 2013 drama Saving Mr. Banks, Streep told Ellen DeGeneres, “I was really shocked. And I wrote her a long, heartfelt email saying how bad I felt. And she wrote me back and said, ‘Good.’”
The same year, Streep made a speech at the National Board of Review gala during which she slammed Walt Disney and paid tribute to Thompson’s performance in Saving Mr. Banks.
“When I saw the film (Saving Mr. Banks), I could just imagine Walt Disney’s chagrin at having to cultivate P.L. Travers’ favour for the 20 years that it took to secure the rights to her work. It must have killed him to encounter in a woman an equally disdainful and superior creature, a person dismissive of his own considerable gifts and prodigious output and imagination,” she continued.
“There is a piece of received wisdom that says that the most creative people are often odd or irritating, eccentric, damaged, difficult; that along with enormous creativity comes certain deficits in humanity or decency.
“We are familiar with this trope in our business: Mozart, Van Gogh… Tarantino, Eminem… Ezra Pound said, ‘I have not anyone worth a damn who was not irascible’.”
She then added, “Well I have: Emma Thompson. Not only is she not irascible, she’s practically a saint… Emma considers very carefully what the f**k she is putting out in the culture. Emma thinks, ‘Is this helpful?’ Not, ‘Will it build my brand?’ Not, ‘Will it give me billions?’ Not, ‘Does this express me, me, me in my unique and fabulous itself into all eternity in every universe for all time?'”
Shoutout to these two queens for always having each other’s back, whether they’re kissing or up for Oscar nominations.