In another shocking political and pop culture discovery, Emma Thompson, a member of Hollywood royalty, says that Donald Trump once “stalked” her trailer to try to get her phone number and extend an invitation to dinner.
Also, the Oscar-winning actress believes that the timing couldn’t have been more surprising!
At the 78th annual Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, Thompson (who is renowned for films like Love Actually, Sense and Sensibility, and the Harry Potter movie series) shared the story in an open Q&A session, something she had also recalled in 2020.
Emma Thompson, who won the Leopard Club Award and was talking about her new movie, The Dead of Winter, entertained the audience with a story from 1998, when Trump was most famous for being an extravagant New York real estate tycoon.
She was filming Primary Colors, a political satire based on Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, with John Travolta. That’s when her trailer phone (which she said had never rung before) came alive.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, she remembered hearing, “Hi, this is Donald Trump here.”
“I thought it was a joke. And then I said, ‘How can I help you? ,’ thinking maybe he needed directions”
Instead, Donald Trump proposed dinner and a stay at one of his “beautiful places.” Ever courteous, Emma Thompson said, “That’s very sweet, thank you so much. I’ll get back to you,” and hung up, per a report by The Mirror US.
That day, she had just finalized her divorce from director and actor Kenneth Branagh. Because she was a “nice divorcee” to have on his arm, the actress assumed that Trump might have had people looking for “suitable” high-profile women.
“And he found the number in my trailer,” she told the audience. “I mean, that’s stalking!”
Emma Thompson Says Donald Trump Was Basically ‘Stalking’ Her Right After Divorce https://t.co/X3OfmMsXMR pic.twitter.com/i4th4S3MLZ
— TMZ (@TMZ) August 9, 2025
The Nanny McPhee star did not cover up the irony in the situation, even though the term may have been used in jest. “I could have gone on a date with Donald Trump, and then I would have a story to tell.”
She made a point that made people laugh: “I could have changed the course of American history.”
Emma Thompson had been thinking about the strange experience of filming Primary Colors as the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke in real life before she launched her Donald Trump story.
There are inescapable similarities to the Clinton administration in this film, which revolves around a fictional Southern governor (Travolta) and his wife (Thompson) as they get involved in a complicated presidential campaign.
Regarding the meeting point of life and art, she said, it was “very strange,” and added a word of sympathy for Lewinsky: “Poor Monica.”
In 1998, Monica Lewinsky, a 22-year-old White House intern, presented a dress stained with semen, confirming her affair with President Bill Clinton. pic.twitter.com/vtE8EZ8sm4
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) July 10, 2025
Talking about today’s political climate, Emma Thompson said, “If only we could just have a nice s-x scandal and not all this stuff,” which makes the political storms of the 1990s seem almost primitive now.
The proposed dinner date between Emma Thompson and Donald Trump in the late 1990s is the kind of cultural fantasy that could inspire weeks’ worth of late-night monologues. Thompson has no regrets about turning it down. Even so, the anecdote serves as a reminder that politics and entertainment have been interacting for a long time before reality show contestants took office.
Had she accepted? Thompson jokes she could’ve made more history than she already has.
