Kristin Scott Thomas on My Mother’s Wedding: Memories, Loss, and Finding the Present
Kristin Scott Thomas opened up about her latest film My Mother’s Wedding, a deeply personal yet fictional story that weaves together memory, loss, and the complicated bonds between three sisters.
Though the seed of the film began in her own family history, Thomas didn’t set out to tell her literal life story. Initially, she envisioned a handful of animated scenes simply as memories for her siblings but the emotional resonance of animation inspired something bigger. “Animation is such a powerful tool to evoke emotion,” she shared. “You project onto a drawing more easily than a human being.”
What began as intimate memory sketches evolved into a narrative feature centered on three fictional sisters and their formidable mother, Diana played by Scott Thomas. The dynamic between them, part love, part rivalry, part history became the spine of the story. Scarlett Johansson’s character, Katherine, clings to precious memories of her father in a way Thomas admits mirrors her own emotional truth: “That feeling of having something that is only yours, no one else can have, I know that feeling.”
Co-writing the script with her husband, John Mikkel, brought its own rhythm. She brought the dialogue and emotional beats; he brought the structure. The pandemic’s enforced stillness gave them the time to refine without pressure.
A central theme of My Mother’s Wedding is how different people can lose the same person but experience grief in entirely different ways. The three sisters’ ages shape how they remember their fathers, and even their empathy toward each other. Thomas was careful to avoid creating a “hierarchy of loss,” though she acknowledged the human tendency to measure grief.
Visually, she chose to keep the sisters physically close on screen, cramped spaces, elbows knocking, children running underfoot to evoke the lived-in chaos of family. She contrasted the lush, soft greens of the English countryside with the hard, metallic world of the Navy ship, underscoring the story’s emotional landscapes.
The heart of the film beats in Diana’s relationship with Jeff, the man she marries. One standout moment: Jeff, who avoids the spotlight, sings in French at their reception, purely to make her smile. “He’s not afraid to make a fool of himself,” Thomas said warmly.
Family conflict, too, is handled with both honesty and humor. Scenes of full grown sisters bickering even physically mirror the scratchy rivalries of childhood. And through it all, Diana dispenses advice that is blunt yet rooted in love. Her plea to her daughters: stop living as daughters stuck in the past and start living as women in the present.
The Navy sequences, shot with real sailors and officers, were a logistical challenge for a first-time director. But Thomas embraced it, honoring authenticity while weaving in her own childhood memories of visiting her father’s ships.
Ultimately, My Mother’s Wedding is less about weddings than it is about navigating the messy, enduring ties of family and learning to step out of the shadow of the past without losing the light it gave you.
Watch the full conversation below:
Q&A on the film My Mother’s Wedding with writer/director/executive producer/actor Kristin Scott Thomas. Moderated by Mara Webster, In Creative Company.
Three sisters return to their home for the third wedding of their twice-widowed mother. But the mother and daughters are forced to revisit the past and confront the future, with help from a colorful group of unexpected wedding guests.
