Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - Kristin Scott Thomas

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

This week we’re joined by the wonderful Dame Kristin Scott Thomas for lunch! Kristin came by to talk about her beautiful new film My Mother’s Wedding, and over lunch we covered everything from growing up in a family of five children and her mum’s cooking, to leaving drama school and being sent to France as an au pair. We also chatted about acting in French, auditioning for the incomparable Prince’s Under the Cherry Moon (and kissing Prince), and reuniting with the incredible Scarlett Johansson on the new film. Kristin was such a warm and fascinating guest, and we absolutely loved having her at the table! Kristin’s directorial debut, My Mother’s Wedding, will be in cinemas in the UK from 29th May!Listen & watch Table Manners here - https://tablemanners.komi.io/Follow Table Manners on:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tablemannerspodcast/TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@tablemannerspodcastFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/tablemannerspodcastYouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TableMannersPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jesse's album, Super Bloom, is out now. It's got the amazing singles. I could get used to this. Ride, automatic. My favourite, which you might not have heard yet, Superbloom. If you go to Jessie's store, Jessie Ware.com, and put in the code Table Manners, you'll get 10% off. Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware and I'm here with Mum in Clapham, who's done all the

cooking today. Thank you, my, darling. How are you? Well, I haven't seen you for ages. No, we haven't seen each other for ages and I'm just back from Sri Lanka and I've got to shout out Jane Howell. Who's Jane Howell? My new best friend, the American ambassador in Sri Lanka, darling. And Theresa Malmone, who is the British High Commissioner. Oh my goodness. Both Table Manor's devotees. Oh well there you go. There you go. Stopping for picks in Columbus. Stopping for in Colombo. We're global, darling. Love it. What are we eating today?

I've made a kind of Vietnamese chicken salad, so it's called crispy butter chicken salad, but it's kind of got a kind of Vietnamese edge to it. Great. I've done some jasmine rice, and then I've made just a little apple

cake with some nice crem fresh the expensive sort. Lovely. Well, only the best for a dame. A dame. We have dame, Kristen Scott Thomas, coming on today. to talk about her new film that she directed and wrote and starred in. Which we've been lucky enough to see. Yes, my mother's wedding.

Starring Kristen Scott Thomas, Scarleti Hanson, Sianna Miller. Got so many other people. It's fantastic. So she's coming over for lunch. Kristen Scott Thomas, you will know from whether you've seen her on stage winning Olivier's for the Seagull. I saw in the Seagull at the Royal Court. Four Weddings and a Funeral. Horse Whisperer.

Horse Whisperer. English Patient. But now her best role ever, slow horses. Dame, Kristen Scott Thomas, coming up on table, ladies. Welcome. Thank you very much. You look fantastic. I do feel very well.

Do you? Yes, it's very nice. Good. That's good. You walked in, you're very happy that you smelt food. Yes. Are you hungry? I'm all, a bit tragic fact of my life is that I'm mostly hungry all the time.

Why is that tragic? It's fabulous. Yeah. What have you have for breakfast? Omelet? Boiled egg. Oh yeah. Boiled egg and toast.

Okay. Yeah. Any marmite on there? Nope. Just plain toast. Not even any butter on it today. Oh God. This isn't sounding very fun.

No, no, no. It usually is much more fun than that, but I've got to refrain. Oh. Yeah. Acting. But I think you're French, really. So you should be having a big slab of butter. I don't always have a big lunch, but I do think lunch is an important thing.

And I like, it's a bit of a myth that French people go off and have huge lunches. They often have just a salad or something. But they often have wine with it, don't they? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But then, you know, when I first went to France, I think it was only like in the 70s that they stopped giving wine to children in school canteens. You're kidding. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What, do you think they were giving them? Well, they would have a little, you know, a glouc, there would be a carafe of wine on the table for lunch for over 16s or whatever it was. And and and but in those days wine was a very different product and for instance now I don't know what what the alcohol content on that is. Oh you've got glasses on. Is it is it? Oh my God all of us squinting.

Yeah. 13% of so it would be much lower alcohol content so maybe an 11 or a 12 max probably and they all behave very well. They would cut it with water. Okay. But I'm not saying it's a good idea and we should bring back wine at lunch for school children. But, you know, it's the world's changed, you know. Did you bring your children up in France?

Yes. So do you think? My children are all very, very French. I'm half French. Right. And yeah, there we are. We're sort of caught mid-channel, really. I'm really jealous of that because I think it's, I, I listen to, you.

you talking about how um you did you did you not make it in drama school did somebody tell you not to be an actor oh here we go okay is this okay this is fine fine so basically i was very young and and quite now i looking back i realized quite sort of um i think one would say traumatized but i went to drama school and couldn't really handle it and didn't really know what I was doing and I was very young and I was all over the place and was far from home and I had absolutely no boundaries. You know, I was just sort of doing any old thing and I wasn't going to lessons and anyway, I didn't really want to be there. I wanted to be, oh, important point.

I had gone to that drama school to be pretending that I wanted to be a teacher when I really wanted to be an actor, but I was too scared to say I wanted to be an actor. And so I kind of got in there under false pretenses, and they spotted those false pretenses pretty quickly, and then I got sent off. Their mistake? Yeah. But you got sent off, and wasn't it a family friend that told you to go to France? Yes, yes, yes.

My godfather said, no, this isn't going to do. You can't be, because I was working, I did all these jobs, you know, sort of one minute I was a waitress, then I worked in Harvey Nix, then I, you know, I was just sort of doing things and I really wasn't a happy person at all. And he sort of scooped me up and said, right, you're going here, there's your ticket, you're going to there, you're going to look after those children for a bit. So he sent me off as an opair. And, you know, that was, that was the beginning of my life in France. How old were you? 18. I can't imagine how... No, I was a bit older than that. I must have been older than that. I must have been.

in almost 20, I think. But when you just talked about, and we're getting in it straight away, into it straight away, but you were pretending that you wanted to be a drama teacher and you got found out and then you kind of got rejected. And that must have been incredibly brutal for a young girl. Yeah, it was really brutal. It was extremely brutal. And I did not take it well.

And, yeah, I was, yeah, chucked out. not chucked out, but I was told if I put one, I wanted to transfer to go to another department, to the acting department, and I'd managed to organise an audition with that acting department, but then the non-acting department, the teaching department I was in, said if you put one foot in what's his name's office,

then you'll be out. And so I just sort of gave up at that point. And I remember going in, and I'd made this model of the Globe Theatre, because that was part of what we were doing at the time, and making little models of theatre. It was a really interesting course, to be fair. Where was it?

Central School. The teaching department was really, really interesting. Learning how to be a teacher was really interesting. You did all sorts of things. It was really, you learned how to be a stage manager, you learned how child psychology, which really did not interest me at all. I was basically a child myself.

And the teaching, actually teaching bit I was a disaster at, but I really liked this modeling and making this model. and I went into that room and I was in floods of tears and I just smashed the whole model. I just took a kind of thing to it and just smashed it to bits and then left.

Very upset. And very childish, you know, as a kid. But like, wasn't there one kind of, like the devil on your shoulder? You were doing the right thing by, well, they told you if you went into the drama school, then, you know. But weren't you tempted because you had this opportunity?

Did you want to do the right thing or not just about it? No, I've just stood very, very confused and just all over the place. And luckily there was my godfather who noticed this and took me away from that and put me somewhere else. And the place I ended up, O'Pairing, was actually really, really, really helpful and wonderful. They were really supportive. And, well, I didn't really know what I wanted to do because I thought it was impossible to be an actress. I just thought it was impossible. I don't know why I thought it was impossible.

But you got into Central. Well, I got into Central as a trainee teacher. So I got everything under false pretenses. So this awful feeling of, and I mean, we all get it, don't we? We all get that feeling of when it's, when am I going to get found out? When people are going to find out that I'm a fraud? I shouldn't be here. I'm, you know, I'm sure we all get that feeling.

But that was sort of confirmed, really, when I went to drama school that I was a fraud because I wasn't any good at being a teacher. I wouldn't be able to be an actress because I wasn't allowed to. It was kind of confirmation of my worst fears. Was it quite mixed then drama school or was it mostly middle class girls? I mean you've been too much out. Oh my god no I got such grief for that. I can't even begin to tell you such grief for that. It was like of course you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth etc which is of course was not the case the fact that I spoke like someone from the 1950s was what put them onto that. But anyway, those days have gone.

And when I found this wonderful family in France, she had been a concert pianist and had a car accident and ruined her hand. So she'd converted into helping TV shows, you know, because there was an awful lot of sort of cultural television in those days back in France. and she was a sort of link between the camera and the orchestra so she'd know when you'd have to zoom into the violin and when you'd... So she managed to recreate something musical with what she was able to do at that now.

And she had lots of friends who were singers and musicians and actors and directors and really encouraged me. And in fact, when I was about to chick it out of going to my audition for drama school in front, France, she came to the kitchen. She said, what are you doing here? I said, well, I'm just watching up. And she goes, well, I thought you had your audition this afternoon. And I said, yeah, but I'm not going to go because there's no point. You're like this. And she said, absolute nonsense. Grab me by the wrist. I still remember her little hand, her claw around my

wrist and dragged me downstairs, held a cab, gave the man 50 francs and said, take her to the theatre. And I got in. So I have everything to thank her for. Was it more free acting in French, like not being in your English is your mother tongue, right? English is my mother tongue. It was and at the same time it was terrifying. The first year I didn't really say very much. I did a lot of mime.

But I discovered a passion for this writer called Marguerite Durass. And I'm ashamed to say that one of the reasons I enjoyed reading her writing so much and she wrote plays and she wrote novels and she was quite, she was a very famous figure in the 70s and 80s. And one of the reasons I really enjoyed it because her sentences are really short

and the publisher, the books they were published in, were very large writing. So it was incredibly accessible, but the thoughts were quite profound and sometimes very complicated. So that's where I got this reputation for being incredibly brainy. because I was reading Marguerite duress

but it was simply because the print was big and the shentenses were short. I love that. But I've heard that when you act in France or in French you've no accent. They can't detect. It's not quite true. I do have a bit of an accent.

But it doesn't really matter. I think the difference between in England we have an obsession with regional accents and who belongs where and where do they come from and what do it. And it sort of bleeds over into foreign. So, you know, where do they come from? It's all very mysterious. In Europe, it's much more fluid because people arrive from Spain or they arrive from Portugal or they arrive from Germany

or they arrive from northern Europe. You know, there's much more of a mixture. So people aren't so hung up on the way people speak there. So I know that when I was making films a lot in France, we took the film on to a regional place to do a press conferences and somebody said, you know, was I from the next door town? Okay. Because they didn't, you know, couldn't tell. They couldn't tell. Where did you audition for Cherry Moon?

In France, yeah. Oh, wow, was it Prince over there? Yeah, he was there, yeah. Because they were making the film in the Victorian studios down in Nice. Oh, wow. So for people that don't know, you were in Prince's film Under the Cherry Moon, is it called Under the Cherry Moon?

And you thought you were going just as like for one of the girl parts, but you got the lead. Yes. And you had to snog Prince a lot. Quite a lot, yeah. And being sexy cars with him. Yeah, I had to do all of that. And that was kind of like your first acting job, right?

That was my first acting job. Talk about baptism of fire. Jesus. But what's he singing then? What was his album out there? The album that accompanied the film was called Parade. So it was just after around the world in a day. Is that the one around the world in a day?

I think the one with Raspberry Beret on it. Oh, right. And that's what I had been listening to over and over again on my little Walkman that somebody brought me back from Japan because you can't buy them in France yet. And that's what I've been listening to all summer when I was camping in a school because we were performing a Marguerite Durass play

in a field in Burgundy and suddenly I get this call to go to Paris to go and audition for this man I'd been listening to all summer I mean it was all spooky and I go along Was he in the audition? No

but there were lots of people around a camera a bit like that and then suddenly there's a huddle and somebody pokes his head up and says would you be interested in auditioning for the lead And when did you? Yeah.

Did you do you battered that imposter syndrome away at that point. You were like, let's go. No, I just thought, no, no, no. The imposter syndrome was very much lurking at all times. But I thought, well, I suppose I did. I pushed it to one side. And I stepped forward and I said, yes, I would. And there we go.

That was a wild moment. Amazing. Totally wild. Was there real chemistry there? I mean, we were both really young. Right. He was, I think it was 24. I was 23. You know, all I could think about was this play that I was doing at the time,

which was super intense and great, and was a big success. And then suddenly to be in this complete other world of luxury hotels. I'd never even been to a hotel before that. Oh, wow. And luxury hotels and everything was sort of gold and sparkly. And there was Prince who was actually a real person, not somebody that had just been listening to.

And somebody in this incredible outfit with these three manager people around him. And it was all a bit sort of, it was very, very peculiar. Was he quite small? He's tiny. Tiny, tiny, tiny. Was he kind? Super kind.

Okay. Yeah. No, really a generous, spirited person. Did you keep in touch? Yes, we did. Yes, we did. But the problem with people like that who are so talented and so extraordinary is there are a lot of people who are protecting that. And so to try to get through this wall of people who, for various reasons, some of them good reasons, some of them less good reasons, want to kind of keep you away.

that was quite that was a learning curve I mean the whole thing was just a mad mad mad moment and but we did keep in touch because many years later I was doing publicity for a film I think it was Richard the 3rd

and I went on a TV show morning TV breakfast TV and you have to get up at the crack of dawn and go along and they're all being very chirpy and everything's sort of say it was in New York and it was in New York and had a very big press scheduled.

And I go on the thing and they get asked the question, what was your first film? It was with Prince and I hadn't heard anything from him since then. And then a bit later on in the day, I got a call in the studio where I was having my photograph taken and saying, and there was a bit of a kerfuffle in the studio, Prince wants to talk to you. Oh, I'll just take that.

I love that. And then we stayed in touch since then. I love the idea that he was watching Regis and Kathy Lee at 7 o'clock in the morning. It's like he was like omnipresent. Like he was kind of watching over everyone that he admired. Like he was, it seems from what I know, he always had like a knowledge of the people that he admired. Yeah. He kept tabs on the people that he'd, he'd kind of nurtured, I think.

Do you, did you ever go to Paisley Park? No, I never went there. No. Sorry. No, it's okay. Disappointing, isn't it? Was he a good kisser? Very.

You've had some good leading men. I have, haven't I? Yeah. I've been very lucky on that. Yeah. We need to take it back to the beginning, though, and very much what, you know, your film, your new film that you've directed and written and stuff.

Yeah. Is inspired by. Yeah. But can you paint a picture of a scene around the dinner table when you were younger? Who was there and what were you eating? Well, first of all, there were quite a lot of. So there are five children and most of the time my mum because there weren't very many, because my father died when I was five and then my stepfather, my mother married again

and my stepfather was killed when I was 12, 11. And they were both in. They were both pilots in the Navy. So they were both either on a ship the other side of the world or they were an airplane flying on an off ship. A fleet air arm. Fleet air arm, yeah, exactly. and so it was mostly my mum and then the five of us and I was thinking about this this morning I was thinking

I know exactly where I used to sit and we had an octagonal table on a pub table base and I would sit here my littlest brother would sit to my right my sister to my left my mum on the corner there and I can just still feel that thing and though she was she did a lot of macrobiotic stuff at one point which was dreadful but she was a good good thing.

She was a really good cook. Because you've got her, your sister did her recipes. Yes, yes, she did. And which was the most wonderful present. It's a great present. It's such a great present. She would tell, tell. So basically, my mother died four years ago, but we, and when we were clearing out the house,

my sister was adamant that we kept the recipes. And so she collated these recipes and made it into a book, you know, it's very easy to do nowadays, that she gave us all for Christmas. So we've got all our favorite things. So tell us your, like the granny's, the granny. the Granny Finden secret cake and things like this. Tell us a lot of this. I know, I can't.

Oh, it's secret. Okay, can you tell us about one other one that isn't a secret, please? Well, she used to make this thing called Egyptian chicken, which was all very good. Oh, good. Yeah, with lemon rind and olive oil. What else did? Carrots, a delicious way of doing carrots. And because she'd traveled a lot.

Yeah. Because she'd lived in the Far East, and she'd lived in Africa. She'd lived in, and she spent a lot of time in Greece on. holidays and things. She was really interested in different flavors and tastes and everything. She was, yeah, she was a really good cook. And her mother before that had been a very good cook. And her mother had been her, I think my granny was a domestic science teacher or something like that back in the day. So, yeah, we've always been, we've always been quite greedy. We've always liked sort of things that were really sort of, can you cook? I used to be able to cook quite well. And I've, for

I'm afraid I've gone slightly off the boil because I just don't do it enough now. Do you eat out a lot? Tends to eat out. At the moment we seem to be doing that quite a lot, yeah. That's all right. In France or London? No, in London we eat out quite a lot. And in France I tend to cook a lot because that's where I like to cook.

Okay. Because I really love. I really love going to the supermarket or the supermarket. and being able to buy one pair if I want one pair and that one doesn't look very nice and I have that one. And to be able to, it's just we do, we have, I'm going to be brutal about it, but the produce is better in France than it is here for stock.

So if we were coming around to yours in France, what would I do? What would you be making us? Well, I'd have to ask you whether we eat red meat or not. Yes, we do. I would go to my butcher and I would buy a really simple piece of beef and I'd cook it. I'm really good at, I'm really good at just the right amount of juice inside.

What's the secret? I think the secret is now is not getting the pan too hot. I've changed to these metal pans now. I don't use any of those non-stick ones I used to. But not getting it too hot. I mean, getting it hot, but not too quickly. And then you get a really, then you seize it. and it has to be the same

you have to press your thumb here on the meat yeah on you no well no but it's the same consistency as you're the the meaty bit of your thumb oh that's a good trick it's brilliant that that works really really well okay and that would be a medium rare

that would be a medium yeah rare to medium rare okay and how long would you let it rest a good 20 minutes oh yeah wrap it up okay so good and then I would do you green beans but really nice green beans. Yeah. With a tiny little, tiny little bit of garlic

and a bit of lempt grated lemon. Shalot, are you putting in there or not? I love a bit of shallot. Me too. And then I would, we always have a green salad. But not one of those, I don't like rouquette in a bag. It drives me mad. Fine.

I like a nice lettuce or a cos lettuce or a batavia or something like that, which has been freshly washed and that tastes really fresh. Okay. Because things that sit around in supermarket, just don't taste the same. And can you tell me what your vinegaret is? Oh. So I put a spoonful of Dijon in a jar.

Yeah. And then I put about that much... Oil? Vinegar. Vinegar. Okay, which one? Well, it depends. And what I feel like, cider vinegar is really good. Okay.

Really good red wine vinegar. Sherry vinegar is great. And then I use my oil. And either I'm going to use a sort of simple vegetable oil with a bit of walnut or noisette or something like that that, that's really good or some really good olive oil.

Okay. And sometimes I put a tiny little bit of honey in, tiny little bit of honey in. No lemon? And sometimes, no, I don't put lemon in. And sometimes I crush a bit of garlic and leave that in the bottom. But I wouldn't chop it up,

but I'd just squeeze it and leave it in the bottom. Salt and pepper, yeah. Yeah, yeah, quite a lot of salt? Well, it depends on the mustard. because the mustard is quite salty. Do you ever change your mustard to whole grain? I quite like that, yeah. There's nothing better than a French vinegarette, is there?

I think the thing is, some people like it really thick and kind of creamy. I don't. I quite like it thin. And I don't want it all over my leaves. I want it to, I want it to enhance the leaves, not just sort of completely smother them in dressing. I don't like that. What's your kid's favorite? dish that you make for them?

Gosh, I don't know. You'd have to ask them, I suppose. I think they like it when I make a, like a bourguignon or something like that, which I love to do. And I like, I cook chicken. And also I really love roast veal. I know some people feel very sensitive towards that, but in France we don't. And I think the secret to all that is not to eat all those things too often. and keep them for special occasions.

And then, you know, this weekend, I've been, this week rather, I made a big lentil salad. Oh, yeah. I love that. Pree lentils or green or brown? Free, pre-wee, which are green. Okay. So you cook those, but I like using a little bit of bacon.

But you can't, it's quite difficult to find bacon in a slab here. You have to buy panchetta. Yeah, a lardons you go. Yeah, okay. I don't want to, I don't like the ones that are already cut. They're chopped up. No, you're quite pure. Water.

Yeah. Oh. There's always too much water. Oh. And it comes out and it's sort of foamy. I don't like that. Okay. I am quite, I'm, I can be remarkably unpurist by the way.

But if I can. No, I like this. I like that. So puy lentils with like panchetta or bacon. A carrot, a little bit of celery, tiny little bit of celery, that much celery chopped up. And an echelot, with the cloves stuck in it. Yeah. And then some.

I love that. My mum makes one like that. And then when it's warm, still warm, I put a really good, this time of thick vinegarate over the top. So good. Oh my God, that's delicious. That's very good. So back to your film? Yes.

It was really, yes, starving. Congratulations. Thank you very much. All star cast. All star cast. You must, you know, make a good impression on set. because well you know what I had these three well I'm talking about the women who play the daughters in the film I play the mother yeah they play the daughters and the film in the beginning was going to be called who art in heaven a sort of reference to the missing father right and then for various reasons it was changed to my mother's wedding okay so the three women who agreed to play my daughters are Scarlett Johansson and Sienna Miller and Emily Beecham.

They are completely different types of actresses. And utterly brilliant, all three of them. They had real chemistry together. Incredible. It was really beautiful. It's like an instant sort of sisterhood. It was extraordinary. Scarlett is one of the most generous and reliable and fabulous actresses,

who I've known actually since she was 11. Yes, Hallsworth's Earth. Yeah. Yes. I love the calls from... I remember reading that when we were on holiday in Wales, Mum. It was like... It must have been in the 90s.

When was it written? It was in... I think it was written in... Yeah, I think I was reading it by like... When I was maybe 11 or 12? That was probably 10, 11. And when did the film come out? I think...

Oh God, I don't know. It was such a hit, wasn't it? 98, 99, something like that. You were with Robert Redford as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. man.

Yeah, I bet. So beautiful that whenever he kind of walked into the room, everyone would just go, and when he went in front of the camera,

you know, by accident, he'd wander across to go and move a prop or something. Suddenly you'd like, be at the movies. Wow. He was an incredible. He was such a good actor as well.

I mean, he was great. And a really great, a really great director. I loved working. with him. That was amazing. But back to Scarlett. She was back. You've worked together three times, haven't you? Yeah, that was the third time.

So, yes, Scarlett was, the moment Scarlett agreed, and she agreed so quickly. She read it and said, yep, I want to do this. And from then on, it was just everything kind of fell into place. So I will be eternally grateful for her fast reaction. But the problem was we had a very short window because she was going off to do something. She was going off to do Jurassic Park. and I was going off to do more slow horses so we had this very short window

in which we would be able to make the film and I'd really written that role for Sienna because I'd always thought of Sienna for that role for the movie star. For the Victoria, yeah. And she is fantastic in it. She's so funny, isn't it? She's really fun, she's sexy,

she's brilliant as it. It was really fun. And then Emily is an actress that I'd admired for a few years because she has such an amazingly sort of, she's got this sort of face that you can see through in that you can see all the emotions just like clouds over her face and I just love that and was very happy when she accepted to play

the youngest of the sisters. Georgina. It was called Georgina. But I, you know, this is based on your childhood of losing two fathers I mean the nub of it yes

it is autobiographical in that sense is that what Catherine and Georgina and Victoria went through is something what is exactly what I went through wow wow

that looks amazing no that looks amazing mom that looks delicious it smells so good there's herbs are lovely oh mum it looks beautiful we should try this thing so Alice has just been in Vietnam

and this is kind of Vietnamese pardon yeah and it's kind of this is a kind of crunchy Vietnamese salad

yeah coriander yeah exactly what I love and then Alice has brought this thing back for us crispy rice cake

but like I feel like we should try it with it because it's straight from Vietnam and I can't do anything with these stupid nails I'll do it honestly

I think this is going to be particularly good for a podcast well the crunch yeah Really good. But what do you do with this? You just eat it? I just eat it.

Yeah. It's quite yummy. Mmm. Oh, this is really good with that little peppery thing at the end. I've made crispy butter chicken salad, but it's kind of basically Vietnamese, I think. Oh, how lovely. There's a lot of Vietnamese cooking in Paris.

Yeah. I'm probably not as good as that. But all the ingredients seem quite. This is so good. Oh, please help yourself to a lot. Can I give you some rice? Yeah. You have some masses of chicken there.

Yeah, lovely. Is there enough dressing on it? Oh, it's so good. Is it? Thanks, Mom. God, this is the best podcast. Thank you. But back to the film.

Yeah. You know, these three sisters, I've heard you talk about, they kind of represent you in different. You've got the movie star, you have the... the daughter Katie Frost who is, you know, honouring her father's... Overachiever, honouring her father's legacy. Obsessed with keeping everybody together. Yeah.

And then you have Georgie who is, you know, the caring kind of... Perfect mum. Perfect mum having a bit of a shitty time. Yeah. But like, which bits of the sisters are you? I mean, obviously the film star I can see. Well, it's difficult to talk about that because obviously every single thing that you ever do as a creative person,

your own sort of soul filters through. That's the point. So it's very difficult for me to say which bits. But I mean, basically what I've just said is that I, for a very long time, because I was the eldest daughter and because we were, you know, facing quite a lot of emotional difficulty, I felt that I had, my job was to sort of keep everyone happy, keep the thing moving along.

Terribly bossy, apparently. I didn't know that, but ask any of my siblings and they will tell you that. There are lots of us, you know, we as a family, we were five. So I felt that sort of slightly overachieving, and I've got to get it right and I've got to do this. And I think that that's, that Catherine sort of represents that part, if you like. That's Scarlet-Hansson.

That's Scarlet-E Hansen. And then the role played by Siena Miller, who's the flighty actress is also part of me and part of the sort of wanting to please, wanting to be, want to be loved by everybody.

So the Catherine Clifton part doesn't give a damn what anyone has thinks about her. She's just forging ahead, making sure everything. And the Sienna-Miller role, the Victoria, is the opposite. She wants everybody to love her and the rest of it. And Georgina just is, trying to have a normal life

with these very extravagant sisters. I think my favourite scene in your movie was when your husband that you're marrying sings a song to you. It felt so much like European cinema. That part, it felt

like kind of like an Amo Dova film. It felt more European. Do you know what I mean? And I really loved the It was incredibly tender and beautiful. It's really sweet, isn't it, that moment? It was a beautiful moment. Has he based on your husband now? No. No. James Peake played my brother in four weddings and a funeral.

Yeah, and the mumbling. And then he played my husband in the three sisters. And then he played my husband again. So anyway, no, it wasn't, there was nothing. They're not based. It's all fantasy. People say, is it really your mother? No, I wish I'd had her. I wish my mother had been like that. What's she glamorous, your mother? My mother was incredibly beautiful.

I wouldn't say she was glamorous. She was incredibly beautiful. I mean, sort of extraordinarily beautiful. But she didn't really have any money. She didn't have, she had a certain style, I suppose, but she didn't have any money to be glamorous, do you know? Can we talk about boarding school? Oh, if you want.

Well, it's... I better have a drink. Yeah. Well, you've talked about, you know, you get this horrendous news that your father has passed away. Yeah. And you're kind of sent back to, boarding school because that's just how it was and you know your mom was keen for you to remain

in boarding school because it was a great school but there was maybe a fear about being allowed because your father was no I mean he was no longer with you and I don't know whether it was subsidised or the fees and stuff like that yeah yeah so she went to a desperate attempt for you to get a great education but how was boarding school for you it was really tough it was tough because it was just bad timing basically. So when I first went, it was just after my mother's second wedding. We'd been bridesmaids at this wedding and then we had to

he was set. My stepfather was sent away to see, so he was going to see and my mother moved with him down to wherever he was posted and it was deemed that it was a good idea to put us into boarding school. So so daddy dies, mommy gets married to someone else and then you're plonked in a boarding school which was perhaps not the best idea How old were you?

I was eight. My sister was seven. Okay, right, okay. So, and you know, thinking about, and the nuns were completely adorable. And I think about these nuns and my sort of heart swells

because they were so, so sweet. They weren't wicked nasty nuns at all the. So you have the Nautus house type, the good ones. They're really, really lovely. Sister Marcelline was my favourite. I mean, Sister Marcelline, I have a memory of Sister Marcells,

I got measles or something, and I had a terrible fever, and I was put into sickbay and my mother was miles and miles and miles away couldn't come and she was sent for but it took a few days for her to get there and this was a long time ago

you were talking like 60 9 70 and I woke up in the middle of the night and there lying on the floor was the nun who'd taken off her veil but she was fully dressed but she'd taken off her little bonnet underneath but she was lying on

the floor making sure I was all right. That's very good. You know, I can never forget that. So, and then on Thursdays we'd have our hair washed. You know, it was sort of, it was kind of, anyway, it was what it was. And then when I went to my secondary school, I was very proud to be able to go there because my mother had been there. And I was very excited about it all.

But then, at the end of my first term, my stepfather was killed. And so that was tough. no pastoral care, so to speak of, in those days. I mean, they've come, I mean, boarding schools are not the same thing as they were in the 70s. And they go home most weekends, don't they? We didn't. It was every six weeks. Yeah. Yeah. And you're little. So it was, I mean, I was little and it was tough. But she thought she was doing the best for you. Well, actually, I think the second time around she didn't have any thoughts. It was just like she could not, I don't think she could really compute what was going on. Because there she was with five children, two

dead husbands. How did this happen? She's 33. How does this happen? And it just seems so unfair. You know, life isn't fair. You keep hearing that. No, life isn't fair. Get on with it. But that was a really bad. Was he your dad's best friend? He was a great friend of my father. So he was going to be my sister's godfather, but they changed their minds at the last minute. He gave the job to someone else. Okay. So he was very close. Your mama has always known him. He's known him for a long time, yeah. He was a lovely person. He was a really lovely person.

Can you imagine taking on four kids that aren't yours? So that is the true bit in the film. When is it coming out here? At the end of May. Are you writing anything else? Oh, good. Trying to. I'm absolutely loving this.

This is my heaven. Is it? It's not very good for the old herb in tea. It's quite spicy. So we'll have to all check with each other, but we don't have a bit of mint. Is that phen on in there as well? No.

It's white cabbage. There's white cabbage red onion, julienne carrots and cucumber, and then there's coriander and mint. And then you make a ginger and chive oil. Ginger and chive? Yeah. How do you do ginger and chive oil?

You heat the oil quite high and then you put in chopped ginger and chives and that's the chive oil and then you let it go cold. You call it? Yeah. So it's infused. Yeah.

So good. Really nice. Good. Yeah, you see, if I'd fed you, you'd all be asleep under the table because it would be so heavy. Well, I thought, yeah, I just thought you won't eat heavy food.

Do you know what I really love as well? What? What? Is Andive. Do you know what I mean by all that? I love on deep. White vegetable thing. Baked, you know,

I don't know what. Braised? Braised, yeah. Yeah, I like this. So good. That's a good idea. We've never done braised on, Dee. Who would like some apple cake?

Me, good. Yes, please. And I bought this fancy pants stuff because I thought you'd like it. Oh, that looks very strange. Let's talk about France and you was an au pair. Yes. Were you having to cook for your kids? Yes, I had to cook for the kids.

And they were very worried because I was English. How rude. I know. Yeah, no, I learned a lot about, um, that and I was quite big on I was quite big on kind of giving them these children had to have soup in the evenings

so I had to make all these different soups so you're good at soup Why did they have to have soup? I don't know it was a French rule I don't know, that French rule in that family And did you have good? They weren't entirely French actually, they were half German Oh okay

So they might have had a bit Maybe the soup came from the German side It might have done Potage potage Did you have guté as well? A gooté, yes, definitely have a goatee. Was it always Natella? No, it's always in that family.

It was a, this is what they did. Because you can buy a pan of raisin like you can in the bakers here. A what? A pan o raisin, a pan o racin, a panreste. A pan o'raise or a pan in chocolate. Yeah. So the other day I went into one of those places. And I said, can I have a pan o raisin, please?

And she goes, oh, what? A painer raisins. Yeah, she got that. Anyway, so what they do in France is they get a baguette Because the bakeries in France cook very early in the morning And then for the eat And then they shut after lunch until 4 o'clock And then they do a new batch for the evening

Because baguettes, as you will have found out, Don't last more than about a blink. Yeah. And what you do when you're a mummy in France Is you go to a baker, you buy a baguette, You chop it into pieces about that long and you shove a bit of chocolate in the middle. And that's what French kids have. Fab.

So it's sort of deconstructed power chocolate. So do you think living in... Yeah, it does look good. Do you think being in France from such a kind of young age informed your taste buds hugely? Definitely. Yeah. Did you pine for anything from the UK?

Yeah. I did. I used to pine for marmite. But then, you know, I'm mostly in France in the... the good old days of the EU, so I could get most things, and they used to have a certain department store. Which passport do you have?

I had both. I'm not quite sure this does look good, yeah. It's got a saltiness to it. It's really good one. Oh, yeah, yum. Whose recipe is theirs? Melissa Clark. Oh, I like Melissa Clark.

New York Times. It's a good app. It's a good app. It's a good app. My best. Very good. And there's an old-fashioned American food critic called Patricia Wells.

who wrote about bistro cooking in the 80s or 90s. And that book is my Bible. It's fantastic. Oh, really? That's great. I feel like it's time for the last supper. You're going to a desert island. What would be your last supper before you go to that desert island for a very long time?

Starter, Maine, Pud, drink of choice. My starter would be... It's a very difficult toss-up, actually, because it would have to be... either those delicious Spanish anchovies on brown bread. The autos. Oh, yum. No, no, no. I can't really tell you the name of them.

They come in a blue tin. Oh, no, it's not a secret. They're not a secret. It's just as they're done it. They come in a blue tin and they're very difficult to find. And they're salted. I thought that was Orte's. No, no, it's something else. Autis is very good, but it's not.

I know exactly the ones you mean. A dark blue jar. Yeah. They either come in a sort of kilner type jar or a tin. Anyway, those are brilliant, just on a piece of brown bread. With brown rye bread. Oh, lovely. Oh, it's so good.

So that's your starter. Drink of choice? I think I would have... What would I have? I think as my main course, I probably have a veal chop with some lovely mushrooms. And then I would have a nice glass of... Burgundy, but I don't really mind as long as it's nice. Okay.

Any greens on the side? Oh yeah, lots of greens. Yeah. Love broccoli, obsessed with broccoli. Love Cavaloner. I also really like plain old Savoy cabbage. Me too. Just sweated with a stock cube and a bit of butter.

Carraway seeds? Lovely. I like sweetheart cabbage better because it's sweeter, isn't it? But sweeter, isn't it? Oh yeah. Which, what is his bee cabbage? Is that sweet? It's quite the same thing, isn't it?

I thought it was. Okay. And then I want cheese. What's on your cheese? What's on your cheese? Stilton. Really good dry piece of cheddar. You know, the really crumbly kind.

A bit crunchy. Is it vintage or not? Is it crunchy? I don't know. You know, you've got the crystals. Yeah, that's really good. Really like that. And I would have a, what are they called?

The French, it's called a French. French we had it at our wedding Gosh I can't remember it's it comes in a box And it's only a Mondard and they A Mondard there's only a very short season for them It starts on the 15th of September that I know Are you going to have a sweet thing after your cheeseboard? Yeah

What are you going to have? Chocolate I have just discovered no I've gone off chocolate Have you? Don't know why No I have just oh actually I don't know Either a lemon, sort of a really good lemon, thick, eggy, yokey, yellow, strong yellow tart. Uh-huh. With a nice flaky base.

Or I have just discovered the most amazing Basque cheesecake shop. Oh gosh. Where? Is anyone allowed to know? It's called. It's got one of those funny, Marik Tzu or something. Where is it? There's one in Soho.

There's one in sort of Paddington. and there's one somewhere else. And you'd have a big slab of... Oh, that's cheese. You know, Nigella makes it with licorice sauce. Oh, that's cheesecake.

Oh, no, thank you. Oh, I love Ligella, but no, thank you. Yeah, I... Okay, that's a strong... It's very greedy, basically. Why is it greedy? It's not greedy. It's kind of...

It's quite heavy. Yeah. I like that, though. And then we go and have a sleep. Yeah. Then you go and have a walk, because it's always good to walk after you've eaten. And then you're going to have a little.

as snooze in front of the football. You can walk home. Yeah. Before we let you go, can you give us a nostalgic taste that can transport you back somewhere? Oh. When we cleared out my mum's house,

we found jam that was positively museum-worthy. It was so... Vintage. Vintage. Like 2004 or something. Anyway, we... And she...

had made the most amazing marmalade with using apples because you know what i always put marmal i always put apples in jams and things like that because it's great for setting them but she used more apple than technically necessary and it was so good the mixture of apple and marmalade you know orange bitter oranges it was absolutely delicious and that if she could be here to make me some more of that i would be so happy thank you so much for being on the podcast it's been such a Thank you. Oh, you are a great guest. You can come back just to be able to...

You can always come back. And thank you so much for being so open and telling us such fantastic stories. I'm so glad you enjoyed the film. I really, we really did. And congratulations on that. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Kristen Scott Thomas. Very classy lady. I say don't meet your idols that I have now and she was gorgeous. Off the mic, she was talking about being the proudest grandmother. Yeah. And showed us pictures of her.

grandchild. I know. Gorgeous. Very proud. Yeah. Thank you so much for coming on and being really open and she loved the food. The food was banging today, Mom. What's it, darling?

Oh my God, that is my, that could be on my last supper, that kind of meal. Really? Yeah. I over catered, though. Yeah, but we love that. Thank you, Kristen, Scott Thomas, for coming on. Thank you for quite a, like, heavy fab last supper. Veeltrop, I don't think we've ever had.

No. But she's French, you see. Yeah. Yeah. And well done, mum, because I know your hip's still not great, is it? Not great. But you just do it, don't you? Because I'm a trooper, darling.

Yeah, you are. We'll see you next week for more table manners. Jesse, I need to say something. I'm never going back to ordinary Cremfresh. It's changed my life. Okay, public service announcement. Okay, sure. That was really good.

Delicious. We'll see you next week for more table manners.