"Harry Potter" alum Emma Thompson is not afraid to look old and to take on more challenging roles. The 56-year-old actress is starring in "The Legend of Barney Thomson," and for the upcoming movie, Thompson has to appear as a 77-year-old prostitute, who is deprived of all things vain.
The transformation of the "Sense and Sensibility" actress reportedly took at least three-and-a-half hours a day, as per Mirror. Since Thompson is playing someone way older than her age, the movie crew had to attach prosthetic skin to her face and hands, making her portrayal of Cemolina very believable.
Robert Carlyle, the director and also one of the stars of the film, said that Emma Thompson was the perfect choice since he wanted to give the role to an actress "who wasn't going to show any vanity."
Speaking of her transformation into an aged prostitute, Thompson said, "People often want to hear some tremendously banal thing like 'Oh my God, it is just so awful looking at myself. But I can't offer up anything like that. You are creating a character. It is not you anymore, it is a character that you can then inhabit."
Meanwhile, apart from making headlines because of her movie, Emma Thompson is also raising awareness to the world on how sexism continues to exist in Hollywood, E! News has learned.
The Oscar-winning actress said, "When I was younger, I really did think we were on our way to a better world and when I look at it now, it is in a worse state than I have known it, particularly for women and I find that very disturbing and sad."
Thompson went on to say, "I am not impressed, at all. I think it's still completely s--t, actually."
Emma Thompson is the latest actress to speak out and slam Hollywood for its double standards. Other actresses who bravely commented on the issue were Amanda Seyfried, Anna Kendrick, Patricia Arquette, Helen Mirren and Jennifer Garner, among others.
The "Nanny McPhee" star revealed that many young female actors share the same sentiments as hers, People reported.
"So I get behind as many young female performers as I can, and actually a lot of the conversations I have with them are about exactly the fact that we are facing and writing about the same things and nothing has changed," she said.
