Emma Thompson has shared a surprising story from the late 1990s — one that involved a phone call from none other than Donald Trump.
Speaking at the 78th Locarno Film Festival on August 9 in Switzerland, the Oscar-winning actress recalled being on the set of Primary Colors in 1998 when the call came through to her trailer.
“It was Donald Trump,” Thompson said. “I thought it was a joke and asked, ‘How can I help you?’ Maybe he needed directions or something.”
It turned out he was calling to ask her out. The timing was striking: Thompson had just finalized her divorce from actor Kenneth Branagh. “I realized he must have people finding eligible women,” she joked. “A nice divorcee, that’s what he was looking for. I mean, that’s stalking.”
Looking back, she added with a laugh, “I could have gone on a date with Donald Trump and changed the course of American history.”
At the time, Trump was still married to his second wife, Marla Maples, though their split was already underway. The two finalized their divorce in 1999, with Maples receiving $2 million under a prenuptial agreement she said she had little time to review before signing.
Parallel Breakups in the Spotlight
Thompson’s own marriage had ended just a few years earlier. She wed Branagh in 1989, but the relationship unraveled when she discovered he had been having an affair with his Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein co-star Helena Bonham Carter.
The breakup was deeply painful, she has said, leaving her feeling humiliated. Professionally, however, Thompson was at a high point. In 1995, she starred in and wrote the screenplay for Sense and Sensibility, earning her second Academy Award.
Trump’s marriage to Maples followed a different trajectory. The two met in 1985 at a charity tennis match while he was still married to his first wife, Ivana Trump. Their affair became public in 1990, leading to his divorce from Ivana the following year. Trump married Maples in 1993, separated from her in 1997, and finalized the divorce two years later.
For Thompson, the odd phone call from Trump remains nothing more than a quirky anecdote — a “what if” moment that never went anywhere, but still makes for a memorable story.
