During a recent interview at the Locarno Film Festival, Emma Thompson recalled an unexpected phone call she received in 1998 while filming Primary Colors. It was Donald Trump, introducing himself and asking her out for a meal. At the time, Thompson had just finalized her divorce from Kenneth Branagh, and she suspected Trump’s timing wasn’t accidental. She joked that perhaps he was looking for “a nice divorcee to have on his arm.”
Thompson declined the invitation, but reflected humorously on how the date “could have changed the course of American history.” Around that period, Trump was going through his own marital changes, finalizing his divorce from Marla Maples in 1999. Their split followed years of public attention, having met in the 1980s while Trump was still married to Ivana Trump.
Emma’s divorce from Branagh had its own share of headlines, reportedly linked to his relationship with actress Helena Bonham Carter during the filming of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Thompson has since spoken openly about how the heartbreak shaped her personally and professionally, even helping her portray emotional roles in later films like Love Actually. Over time, all parties involved moved on and made peace.
Today, Thompson is happily married to actor Greg Wise, whom she met on the set of Sense and Sensibility. Helena Bonham Carter went on to have a long-term relationship with director Tim Burton, while Kenneth Branagh married film art director Lindsay Brunnock. Decades later, the phone call from Trump remains a surprising and amusing footnote in Emma Thompson’s storied career.