Dame Kristin Scott Thomas collected her Crystal Nymph at the opening ceremony of the 65th Monte-Carlo Television Festival on Thursday night. The following morning, she sat down with the press at the Grimaldi Forum. Monaco Life was in the room.

Season 6 of Slow Horses — the Apple TV+ espionage drama in which Scott Thomas plays MI5 boss Diana Taverner opposite Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb — premieres on 16th September, with Season 7 already confirmed. The new series centres on Taverner drawing the Slough House team into a high-stakes game of retaliation and revenge.

On the dynamic between her character and Oldman’s: “We’ve worked together before. We’ve got very good acting chemistry. And it’s really fun. These two characters are so brilliantly written. You can’t beat great writing.” On what makes it work: “Diana and Jackson Lamb, they balance each other out. He’s filthy and she’s perfect. Together, despite themselves, they make a very good team.”

The show, she said, has admirers in unexpected places. “Apparently, all the MI6 and MI5, they love it. They really love watching it. We’ve never seen people like this. We’ve never seen the inside of these spy places.”

Coming from film, the pace of long-form television took adjustment. “During Slow Horses, there were times, which were perhaps a little bit like ‘Oh, I’ve got to get into another lift. That’s the nature of long form TV. But then, I’ll get this fantastic scene with Sophie Okonedo, which is amazing to do, or James Callis or Sam West. You get these fantastic moments of sparring, which are really fun.”

The role has also changed her off-screen. “What has astonished me is that sometimes in my life people have accused me of being frightening, and I go, ‘What are you talking about?’ And then I saw Slow Horses and oh my god, I just saw the way this woman looks at people and I thought, oh, I get it now. I’ve been really, really careful in my life [since] to smile a lot. It has changed my way of being.”

Asked what she wants for Taverner in the seasons ahead: “I’d love to see her laugh. I mean, properly laugh, not laugh at someone, but laugh. I’d love to see her sing or hum something. I’d love to see her happy. You don’t often see her happy. You see her satisfied, you see her gloating and you see her relieved, but you don’t actually see her happy. You don’t see her relaxed, ever.” One thing she is clear she does not want: “The one thing I do not want to have to do is get into another lift, because I hate the lighting in the lifts.”

Television, film and theatre

Slow Horses has shifted how the public relates to her, and she has thought about it carefully. “When you are doing a TV show, you are being watched in someone’s living room, on their phone. They have control of when you appear, because they press the button. When you do a film, they make the commitment to go to you. Now, people think they know me, because I’m in their living room. It’s a much more personal connection. I’ve really noticed that.”

“In the theater, people are really friendly and open. When they come up to you afterwards, they saw you on stage, and they really appreciate the work that you’ve done. When you’re on film, they’re slightly in awe, because you’re so big. But on television, the image can be the size of your phone. So suddenly, they’re more powerful than you. If I’m in the street and somebody comes up to me and says, ‘I love Slow Horses,’ they feel empowered to tell you that, because they invited you into their house.”

A second film

A second project as writer and director is underway, following her debut feature My Mother’s Wedding, in which she starred alongside Scarlett Johansson and Sienna Miller. This time she will not appear on screen.

“It’s an adaptation of a novel,” she said, describing it as a contemporary work — a different challenge from My Mother’s Wedding, which drew on her own life following the loss of both her father and her stepfather to air accidents. “It’s a very different challenge.” The script is written. The aim is to go into production in 2027.

Why she didn’t go to Hollywood

At the peak of her film career, the move to Los Angeles was there to be made. She didn’t make it.

“That was for a very specific reason, which is that I really loved European cinema, and I continue to love European cinema. There’s something about a little French film made with £2.50 and with 25 people that I just love. And I liked being in theater, so that’s why I didn’t go that way.”

There were moments of doubt. “Of course, there were times where I kicked myself [about not making the move], but on the whole, I’m really glad that I have been able to go off and do x, y, and z. To go and do a Nicolas Winding Refn film, or just the really fun, mad thing.”

Slow Horses Season 6 premieres on Apple TV+ on 16th September.

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All photos sourced from Monte-Carlo Television Festival