Emma Thompson has revealed that President Donald Trump once asked her out for dinner, and even offered to accommodate her at one of his Trump Towers.
The Love Actually star made the shocking revelation during an interview on the Swedish news outlet SVT. She told the other guests that the incident happened while shooting the movie Primary Colors with John Travolta in the 1990s, shortly after her divorce from actor Kenneth Branagh.
As Thompson tells it, one day she was in her trailer when the phone rang. “I look at it and it’s like weird, like a moose has entered,” she joked. “I lift up the phone [and hear] ‘Hi, it’s Donald Trump here.’ I say ‘Really? Can I help you?,’ and he says ‘I wonder if I can offer you some accommodation in one of my Trump Towers, they’re really comfortable?’
Thompson, who is now married to English actor and producer Greg Wise, said after asking the now-President why he was offering her somewhere to stay, Trump responded: “Why you know, I think we would get on very well. Maybe we could have dinner some time?”
“I didn’t know what to do with myself,” the Saving Mr Banks actress admitted. “I was on my own and just said ‘Um, OK, I’ll get back to you. Thank you so much for the offer’.” After recovering from the shock revelation, the SVT joked that Thompson could be the first lady. “You could have stopped him,” added one of the guests.
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Write to Kate Samuelson at kate.samuelson@time.com