Emma Thompson Reflects on Donald Trump's 1990s Dinner Proposal, Imagining 'Sliding Doors' Scenarios | Vanity Fair

Emma Thompson’s career has been dotted with moments of heroism, but a new revelation prompts speculation about the role she might have played in the life choices of Donald Trump. According to the two-time Academy Award winner, the real estate magnate tracked her down in the late 1990s, offering her a place to stay and proposing a dinner date. The big night didn’t happen…but what if it had?

Thompson dropped this bombshell at Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival Saturday, during a free-to-attend “in conversation” event with documentarian and Nocturno Cinema founder Manlio Gomarasca. When asked about her role in the film adaptation of Joe Klein’s novel Primary Colors, Thompson did not hold back.

“It feels like a long time ago now, doesn’t it? Oh, if only we could just have a nice sex scandal and not all this stuff,” The Hollywood Reporter quotes her as beginning, noting “the joke that was widely understood as a reference to U.S. President Donald Trump.”

Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson at their wedding on August 20, 1989 in London, England. The couple announced their plans to divorce in 1995.

“I was in my trailer one day while we were making that movie, and the phone rang, and it was Donald Trump,” Thompson continued. “I didn’t know the number of the phone. No one had rung me on it before, and I said, ‘Hello.’ ‘Hi, this is Donald Trump here,’ and I thought it was a joke. And then I said, ‘How can I help you?,’ thinking maybe he needed directions.”

According to Variety, Thompson’s gentleman caller responded “I’d love you to come and stay at one of my beautiful places. Maybe we could have dinner.”

Thompson, surprised, politely responded “Well, that’s very sweet. Thank you so much. I’ll get back to you,” she says.

Donald Trump and Marla Maples at their wedding on December 20, 1993 in New York City. The couple would separate in 1997, with a divorce finalized in 1999.

Initially, she was confused about why she received the casino owner’s call. Then, she says, “I realized that on that day, my divorce decree had come through,” Deadline reports. “And I bet he’s got people looking for suitable people he could take out on his arm. You know, a nice divorcee, that’s what he was looking for. And he found the number in my trailer. I mean, that’s stalking.”

Thompson was married to actor and director Kenneth Branagh from 1989 to 1995, when the couple parted ways. Klein’s roman à clef about Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign—which was initially published anonymously—was released in January 1996; director Mike Nichols purchased the rights to the book after its release, and film production began soon after. Given that, Thompson’s hypothesis isn’t completely improbable.

If Thompson’s anecdote is accurate, however, Trump would still have been technically within the holy bonds of matrimony. The magnate’s second marriage, to Marla Maples, kicked off in 1993, soon after the birth of the couple’s daughter, Tiffany Trump. That marriage would continue until 1997, when the pair announced their separation. Their divorce wasn’t official, however, until June 1999.

Greg Wise and Emma Thompson at a London Fashion Week event in September 2021.

Thompson was also committed at the time of Trump’s call, noting in a 2020 interview that she began dating Sense and Sensibility co-star Greg Wise in 1995. The pair married in 2003. Despite that, Thompson expressed bemusement at the Sliding Doors nature of that call.

“So yes, I could have gone on a date with Donald Trump,” Thompson exclaimed Saturday. “I could have changed the course of American history!”

It’s hard not to join Thompson on that flight of fancy. What if Thompson had left Wise in the dust and taken Trump up on that alleged invitation? And what if they’d—I see you shuddering over there, stop it—fallen in love? The now-president didn’t meet his wife Melania Trump (née Knauss) until 1998, which means their lavish 2005 wedding wouldn’t have happened, nor would have—with all respect to the teen, as no one wants to contemplate never having been born!—Barron Trump (DOB March 20, 2006).

Donald amd Melania Trump at a Palm Beach, Florida campaign event on April 6, 2024.

And here’s a question for you: Would the star of Howard’s End have been able to dissuade Trump from reality TV, removing his arguable foothold in America’s living rooms?

Trump was—as you know—the star of The Apprentice from 2004-2015, when he was fired for his statements made during his initial announcement of his run for president such as “The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems. And these aren’t the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best... they’re sending people that have lots of problems... they’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Would Thompson have been able to lead Trump away from the boob tube spotlight?

And would Trump have made remarks like that one above with Thompson—a vocal proponent for the rights of immigrants—by his side? Would he have even run for president? Is she right, and she honestly could have changed the course of history just by saying yes to the man on the other end of the phone?

The real question, perhaps, is if that’s something anyone should ask of her. After all, around the same time Trump allegedly made that call to Thompson’s trailer, he was also allegedly following E. Jean Carroll into a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room, where Carroll claims he sexually assaulted her. (A civil court jury agreed that Trump was liable for Carroll’s abuse claims in 2023, awarding her $5 million. The president has denied all wrongdoing, and has never faced any criminal charges in the matter.)

Convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein Donald Trump at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1997.

Carroll’s claim is but one of the many brought against Trump, including allegations of sexual harassment and assault in incidents before or around the time of Trump’s alleged Thompson call. It’s also worth noting that the years of 1996 and 1997 were also a time when Trump was photographed at social occasions with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Outlets, including The New York Times, report that the president and the convicted sex offender spent social time together throughout much of the 1990s.

Given that, we’re faced with a celebrity version of the trolley problem, it seems. Would you condemn Emma Thompson to a life with Donald Trump if it meant we’d have someone else in the White House today? Can we, as a people, even hypothetically demand that sacrifice? I don't know that I can.

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