Emma Thompson says Oscar campaigning made her ‘seriously ill’

The actor, who has won the award twice, also said the intrusive effects of fame can make it a ‘highly toxic condition’

Emma Thompson has said that campaigning for an Oscar made her “distraught” and “seriously ill”.

Speaking to the Radio Times podcast, Thompson said: “Both times I had to do the Oscars I got ill, quite seriously ill, before and during it. I just found the pressure of it and glare of it too much … It’s sort of astonishing – and then you think you want to lie down in a dark room. You think, ‘Please don’t ask me any questions or make me talk about myself.’ It’s horrible. I quite quickly developed a sort of allergy to that, but it’s sort of part of the job.”

Thompson has been nominated for Oscars on three occasions for four different films: in 1993 she won the best actress Academy Award for Howards End; in 1994 for she was nominated for best actress for The Remains of the Day and best supporting actress for In the Name of the Father (winning neither); and in 1996 she was up for best actress and best adapted screenplay for Sense and Sensibility – her win for the latter making her the only person who has Oscars for both acting and writing.

Thompson, who was also asked about her experience of the fame that her success brought, said: “Fame doesn’t happen overnight, it’s gradual. I’m lucky from that point of view; I think it must be awful if you have to deal with being James Bond, or one of those people who really can’t go anywhere. To lose your anonymity completely … it’s not very pleasant for you or the people around you.”

She added: “If that’s what you want, to be recognised, then I suppose you can deal with it, and it’s not so intrusive. But it’s not what I wanted, and I think it’s a highly toxic condition.”

Thompson’s comments come in the wake of a row over the grassroots campaign for Andrea Riseborough’s performance in To Leslie, which resulted in Riseborough securing a surprise Oscar nomination for best actress. Riseborough subsequently said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter that she had been “deeply impacted” by the controversy, and that “awards campaigning is as acerbically exclusive as it has always been”.