Emma Thompson jokes she could’ve ‘changed American history’ by saying yes to Trump

Emma Thompson reflected on the time Donald Trump invited her for dinner, joking in a new interview that had she accepted the date she “could have changed the course of American history!”

The 66-year-old Love Actually star recalled that the incident occurred while she was filming the 1998 political comedy Primary Colors, which was loosely based on Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign.

Variety reports that while speaking at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, Thompson remembered: “A phone rang in my trailer, and it was Donald Trump.

“I thought it was a joke: ‘Hi, it’s Donald Trump here.’ I said: ‘How can I help you?’ I thought he needed directions. He said: ‘I would love for you to stay in one of my beautiful places, and maybe we could have dinner.’”

Thompson at that point had been going through a lengthy divorce from her first husband, fellow actor Kenneth Branagh.

“I realised that on that very day my divorce has finally come through,” continued Thompson. “I bet he has people looking all over for suitable people he could take out, for all these nice divorcees – I mean, he found the number of my trailer! That’s stalking! So yes, I could have gone on a date with Donald Trump. I could have changed the course of American history!”

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Thompson previously shared the anecdote in 2017, telling Swedish television host Fredrik Skavlan: “I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was on my own and I just said: ‘OK, well I’ll get back to you! Thank you so much for ringing.’”

Skavlan joked: “You could be the First Lady. You could have stopped him!”

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Thompson said at the time that she had still not met Trump in person. The Nanny McPhee star has been married to actor Greg Wise since 2003. They first met while they were filming Sense and Sensibility in 1995.

Earlier this year, Thompson told an audience in London that sex should be recommended by the National Health Service because it’s “so good for you”.

She was speaking at a screening of her 2022 film Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, in which her widowed character hires a sex worker (Daryl McCormack) to experience pleasure.

Thompson said during the Q&A: “We need to learn about our own response to: what if when you’re unwell, you can’t make connections, but you need sex? You need sex because it’s part of our health plan, if you like. It should really be on the NHS. It should. It’s so good for you.”