Emma Thompson spills the beans on her upcoming film 'The Dead of Winter'

Emma Thompson recently got candid about her character in The Dead of Winter.

In a talk at the Locarno Film Festival on Friday, August 8, the 66-year-old British actress and screenwriter said her character in The Dead of Winter is about a “real-life heroine.”

For the unversed, in the forthcoming action thriller film, Thompson is playing the role of a widowed woman, desperate to go fishing in snowbound Minnesota but she eventually gets trapped in a kidnapping plot.

Thompson, who also executive produced the film, quipped, “We seem to be telling an awful lot of stories about the super rich or about the dark side of human nature, and this woman’s life, this ordinary humble life, is so beautiful and so rich.”

“She’s able to say: ‘I’m able to let it go to let someone else find herself.’ It’s a story of her love,” the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix star added.

Nicholas Jacobson-Larson, who co-wrote the movie with Dalton Leeb, shared the upcoming film pays tribute to the “amazing women” who raised them. While Leeb dedicated it to his grandmother, as she “would always face adversity face on with humor”

“It feels like a hero you don’t see very often,” he added.

Agreeing with Leeb, Thompson noted, “The boys are right: 30 years ago, when I was starting out, I had this woman’s group. My first question to them was: ‘Who’s the female hero?’ I was still identifying with Marlon Brando and I wasn’t happy about it.”

“This woman is a real female heroine because she doesn’t say: ‘You should be afraid because I have certain skills.’ I mean, she can sew, she’s been formed by weather and lived in close proximity with nature. She knows that she can mess people up by freezing their stuff,” the Matilda the Musical alum said of Leeb’s aunt Tracy.

Before concluding, it is pertinent to mention that The Dead of Winter is scheduled to be released on September 26, 2025.