Back in July, we saw some fun pictures of Emma Thompson and Hannah Gadsby dancing home after spending lunch day-drinking in the pub near Emma’s house. A month earlier, Hannah was visiting Emma in Los Angeles when Emma was interviewed by Mary McNamara from the L.A. Times about Late Night. McNamara mentioned that the pair became friends when Emma visited with Hannah after a show in Edinburgh. The funny part was that Hannah wasn’t totally clear on who Emma was: Hannah “knew she wore a bonnet in something.”

Emma is promoting her Wham!-inspired Christmas movie, Last Christmas, which was released on Friday. In a profile with the New York Times, she mentioned how much she adores Hannah! This was in the context of 10 things that she can’t live without:

Emma Thompson… is frank: She admits that her bank balance often rules her career. “Sometimes I’m not very rich, so I say to my agents, ‘Can you find me a job that might pay well?'” she said. “Because then I can pursue my cultural interests.”

But her private life revolves “very much around the log fire,” said Thompson, who is 60. “The moment that for me is the most valuable is when the family will sit down, and we eat together” — something that she or her husband, Greg Wise, or their 19-year-old daughter, Gaia, has cooked — “and we talk about cultural events and politics and philosophy.”

“To me, conversation is at the center of personal culture,” Thompson added, before revealing her essentials, a mix of favorites old and new.

Hannah’s recent show comes in at number 1 on Emma’s list (of course):

1. Hannah Gadsby’s “Douglas”
“I’ve never come across any single artist who’s changed my perspective on the world more. I think the last time I just woke up in the way that she made me wake up was when I read ‘The Madwoman in the Attic,’ that wonderful feminist literary criticism. Hannah opened so many people’s minds with such an extraordinary explosion. She was a mind bomb. It’s very much about her living with autism, which is so interesting and helpful and current.”

2. George Michael’s “Heal the Pain”
“It’s my favorite song by him. ‘Heal the Pain,’ which is not one that a lot of people know, features strongly in our film and expresses a huge amount of what the film’s about, which is looking after yourself, taking responsibility for yourself and understanding that it’s complex and hard to be a human, and that it’s all right to be inconsistent and uncertain.”

4. “The Overstory” by Richard Powers
“That’s the best book I’ve read in 10 years. It’s a remarkable piece of literature, and the moment it speaks to is climate change. So, for me, it’s a lodestone. It’s a mind-opening fiction, and it connects us all in a very positive way to the things that we have to do if we want to regain our planet. We’ve got lots and lots of trees where we live in Scotland. If I’m feeling unwell or unsettled in any way, I always go and sit with a tree or walk through the trees, and that’s incredibly healing and helpful.”

9. Black of Dunoon’s Potato Scones “It was my dad’s favorite food, which can’t have helped, because he died of heart disease. They’re little triangular, flat pancakes made with potatoes and flour and salt. You can get them in various sorts of places around Scotland. But the ones made by Black’s, to my mind, they’ve never been beaten, because they have a peculiar glutinous quality. And each time I’m in Scotland, I have one with about half a pound of butter.”

[From The New York Times]

Emma also mentions Stella McCartney’s clothing, Young Frankenstein, and Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I love Emma’s list. For me, potatoes are their own food group, so I’m going to book a flight to Scotland as soon as I’m done typing this. I also love that Emma is unreserved in her praise of Hannah, not only because I admire and enjoy them, but because it’s a gift to celebrate and support the work of people in your life. I also appreciate that Emma is honest about her own work choices, and how she sometimes will take on a project for the paycheck.

I’m in complete agreement with Emma’s “mind bomb” description of Hannah, who is now selling merchandise. As a professional tea-drinker, I really want this mug to add to my collection. I’d mentioned that I’d seen “Douglas” and loved it. I was in the third row, which meant that I could see Hannah clearly(!), and I spent a lot of time doubled-over, laughing. I also really want Emma to write a part for Hannah in her next movie, no matter how small. I can’t imagine that she’s not already trying to plan this. I’d prefer a full-length badass-buddy comedy, but I’ll take a five-minute scene-stealing cameo, too. I’m not picky.

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