Emma Thompson revealed the inspiration behind the villainous Baroness, who she portrays in the new Disney film Cruella.
"I found pretending to be mean horribly -- well, it came horribly easily," the actor recalled during a press conference attended by CBR. "I was very well brought up by a very kind and wonderful woman, my mom, and my dad, a wonderful man. I was surrounded by lovely, kind people. My experience of people who were truly mean like that and truly hard and narcissistic is quite rare."
Thompson added, however, that she drew inspiration for the Baroness from a handful of real-life villains she's encountered while working in show business, noting that "some of those people have come to light recently."
"So, awfulness in any profession, in any walk of life, is always possible," she continued. "I suppose the Baroness is a mixture of all kinds of people. Venal, she's quite venal, but her greed is really just for herself. It's like she can't bear anyone else to succeed in any way. She has to destroy all the competition, instead of thinking that the competition might bring her game up, might make her better."
Thompson further teased that, while the Baroness appears to be a strong personality, she's actually "very weak" and will probably end up being the cause of her own destruction. "So when she finally sees someone who's not only talented, but actually more talented than her, and younger and more beautiful than her, she finds it very difficult indeed," she concluded.
Academy Award winner Emma Stone stars in Disney's Cruella, an all-new live-action feature film about the rebellious early days of one of cinema's most notorious – and notoriously fashionable – villains, the legendary Cruella de Vil. Cruella, which is set in 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, follows a young grifter named Estella, a clever and creative girl determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella's flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute, played by two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson. But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.
Directed by Craig Gillespie, Cruella stars Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Paul Walter Hauser, Joel Fry and Emily Beecham. The film is now in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access.