Actor-author Emma Thompson reveals in
an interview with gay glossy The Advocate that gay family
members were the reason she left Christianity.
In the 2013 film Saving Mr. Banks,
the 54-year-old Thompson plays novelist P.L. Travers, the Australian
author who penned Marry Poppins in the 1930s and was believed to be
bisexual.
Thompson explained that the film did
not address Travers' sexuality because, “You can't fit everything
about a person's life into two hours.”
“Besides,” she
added, “Saving Mr. Banks is about a woman's creative,
artistic life. It's a relief, quite frankly, because when is a movie
about a woman not about her love life?”
Thompson, who has previously called
herself a “libertarian anarchist,” added that she rejected the
church over its teachings on homosexuality.
“I was brought up, partially, by
these remarkable, intelligent, wonderful men, and they made me
consider and question all moral systems from a very young age,”
Thompson said, referring to a gay uncle and two gay godfathers.
“They were the reason I rejected Christianity outright, because it
said that homosexuality wasn't allowed. I thought, 'That's
ridiculous! It's perfectly normal, so what do you mean it isn't
allowed?'”