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Kristin Scott Thomas on Her First Film and Working With Prince

Kristin Scott Thomas was a drama student in France when she auditioned for Under the Cherry Moon. She later recalled Prince’s support and his decision to direct.
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Under the Cherry Moon was Kristin Scott Thomas’s first film. She was a young drama student in France when she auditioned to play Mary Sharon opposite Prince—and later remembered him as patient, gentle and supportive as he took over directing.

How Kristin Scott Thomas landed her film debut

Scott Thomas has described Under the Cherry Moon as her first film and Prince as the person who gave her her first film job. In a later interview with The Talks, she recalled that she was 23 and Prince was 24 when they made it.

Her account of getting the part begins in France. In a 2005 interview with The Independent, she said she had recently graduated from drama school and was doing a play in Burgundy. After returning to Paris, she heard there was casting and was asked whether she would audition for the lead opposite Prince.

The process quickly took on a scale she had not expected. Scott Thomas recalled finding herself in limousines and receiving calls about a stylist and makeup artist. The July 1986 EBONY interview archive identifies her character as Mary Sharon and Prince’s as Christopher Tracy, and describes Mary as the daughter of a wealthy shipping magnate. The archive calls the role Scott Thomas’s film debut.

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What she remembered about Prince on set

Scott Thomas’s descriptions are personal recollections, not independent assessments of Prince’s character. In The Talks, she said: “He was incredibly patient and kind, because he’d been performing such a long time and it was his second film.” She also emphasized the importance of the opportunity: “I never ever forget that he was the one that gave me my first job.”

Speaking to The Independent, she recalled him as “Terribly gentle” and said, “Prince gave me my first job. He was the first to say she’s good – fantastic!” Her comments portray an established performer supporting a newcomer, while making clear how much she valued the start he gave her.

Why Prince took over directing

Scott Thomas also recalled an abrupt change behind the camera. At a later BAFTA A Life in Pictures event, she said Prince called her in the middle of the night and told her, “Mary has been fired, I’m now going to be the director.” In the same account, she placed the shoot in the south of France and said she had been hired because she could speak English and was local.

The phrasing of that remembered phone call is striking: the character’s name, Mary, stands in for the actress being told about a directorial change. The recollection captures the unusual circumstances as Scott Thomas experienced them; it should not be mistaken for an independently verified production record. The EBONY archive also reports that the part had initially been intended for Susannah Melvoin, but that detail is specific to its account.

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The significance of the role in her career

For Scott Thomas, the film was not simply an early credit. She has repeatedly returned to Prince as the person who opened the door to her screen career. Her recollections combine the disorienting leap from a student production in France to a major film set with gratitude toward a co-star who, in her telling, treated her with patience and encouragement.

Under the Cherry Moon therefore marks a clear beginning in her own account: her first film, a role secured while she was still establishing herself, and an experience shaped by Prince’s decision to direct after production was underway.

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