Seven Times We Were Inspired By Actress Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson is an actress, comedienne, screenwriter and author. She’s often called one of the greatest British actresses of her generation, but she’s also a seriously down-to-earth, warm, caring person who us career girls could learn a lot from.

 

Here are just some of the ways we’ve been inspired by Emma Thompson.

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1. Greenpeace

Thompson is a large supporter of Greenpeace – so much so that in January 2009, she and three other members of the organisation bought a piece of land half the size of a football pitch to stop the building of a third runway at Heathrow airport. The idea was that if they blocked the space where the planned runway was to be built, the government would cancel their plans to expand the airport. In 2014 Emma also went on a Greenpeace “Save The Arctic” exploration with her daughter to raise awareness for the dangers of drilling for oil. It seems Emma is an Activist as well as an actress.

2. Appearance Isn’t Everything

As much as we love to look good, it isn’t all that matters – as women we have so much more to offer than just our appearance, Emma taught us that: “A lot of very beautiful women can be a pain because all they’re thinking about is how they look.”

3. Divorce

Thompson’s first husband was actor and director Kenneth Branagh, who she met in 1987. After a considerably long marriage in the spotlight, their marriage ended in 1995, the couple saying they had separated due to them “spending long periods away from each other, inevitably drifting apart.” There was a lot of speculation that Branagh had had an affair, and Thomson nearly fell into a state of depression when their marriage ended – but as she threw herself into her new film “Sense and Sensibility,” she met her current husband Greg Wise and she won an Oscar for the film. Who wins here? We think Emma.

4. Awards

Emma has done extremely well in her career, winning two Oscars, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globes and an Emmy Award, just to name a few. Not only has she won them for her amazing acting skills, but one of her Oscars was awarded for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ of Sense and Sensibility, which was also the film that introduced her to her current husband and won her a handful of other awards. No big deal.

5. Learn How To Balance Your Workload

Working as an actress, mother and wife must have its trying times, but Emma has taught us not to balance too much on our shoulders – handle one thing at a time! The balancing act comes with practice…”Sometimes you’ll have some things, and sometimes you’ll have other things. And you do not need it all at once; it’s not good for you.”

6. Adoption

Thompson and her husband George Wise adopted a a Rwandan orphan, a former child soldier, in 2003. They met him at a refugee camp when he was 16, and invited him to spend Christmas at their home in West Hampstead. After Thompson had tried to conceive through IVF treatment and struggled to have more children, she decided that adopting a child who had been through such peril would be just as wonderful. In an interview she commented  that “perhaps if I’d have had more [children], I’d have missed out on this extra act of mothering I’ve had with Tindy.” Tindyebwa Agaba became a British citizen in 2009 and now works as a human rights lawyer.

7. Tears Are OK

She taught us that it’s OK to cry, even about the little things: “If you’ve got to my age, you’ve probably had your heart broken many times. So it’s not that difficult to unpack a bit of grief from some little corner of your heart and cry over it.”

If you need more inspiration why not read up on inspiring life lessons from Angelina Jolie or check out these 15 life lessons all women should know.