Emma Thompson has explained why she regrets turning down a date with Donald Trump.
The Academy Award-winning actress says she believes Trump would not have become the US President if she had accepted his request 20 years ago. After meeting on the political drama series Primary Colours (ironically, a film that focusses on the White House) Thompson revealed why she told Trump to “f**k off”.
Thompson recently recalled her run in with Trump during her appearance on The Graham Norton Show alongside her Meyerowitz Stories co-star Adam Sandler.
The Love Actually star revealed, “Trump asked me out once … I could have changed the course of history! We were doing Primary Colours in 1997 and at the point we only associated Trump with tasteless architecture.”
Despite not knowing it herself, Trump managed to get hold of her trailer landline.
“I was in my trailer and the phone rang – no one had ever rung it nor had I ever used it,” she recalled. “It was Donal Trump on the other hand – I thought someone was having a laugh so told him to ‘F**k off’. He said, ‘Come and stay in one of my hotels and maybe we could have dinner’.”
After explaining to Thompson that he was in fact Donald Trump and that he wanted to have dinner, she told him she’d get back to him.
“I didn’t know what to say. I was absolutely astounded because how did he get the number that even I didn’t have? I said I would get back to him but I never did,” she explained.
“In so many ways I wish I had because I could have ruffled his hair and we would then all have known the truth! And maybe he wouldn’t have been President,” Thompson concluded.