Actress Claims Trump “Stalked” Her for a Date During Divorce

It wasn’t a movie script—it was real life. And Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson says it could have changed the course of American history.

Speaking at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland on Friday, the Love Actually star stunned the crowd when she alleged that Donald Trump—now serving his second term as president—once tracked her down in the late ’90s to ask her out.

“I was in my trailer filming Primary Colors when the phone rang,” Thompson recalled, according to Variety. “It was Donald Trump. I thought it was a prank. I said, ‘How can I help you?’ I figured he needed directions. But no—he told me, ‘I would love for you to stay in one of my beautiful places, and maybe we could have dinner.’”

The timing, she says, was more than a little creepy. “That very day, my divorce from Kenneth Branagh had just come through,” Thompson revealed. “I bet he had people looking for newly single women. I mean, he somehow got the number to my trailer! That’s stalking.”

Thompson said she declined the offer but joked, “Yes, I could have gone on a date with Donald Trump. I could have changed the course of American history!”

From Hollywood Set to Political Stage

The alleged call came in 1998, while Thompson was portraying the First Lady of Arkansas in Primary Colors, a satirical spin on Bill Clinton’s presidential rise. The film was shot amid the real-life Monica Lewinsky scandal—an era Thompson remembers vividly.

“We were filming during the scandal,” she told the audience. “Poor Monica… We were making a movie about political sex scandals while one was unfolding in real time. Back then, you thought, ‘If only this was as bad as it gets.’”

Of course, just a few years later, Trump would meet Melania at New York’s Kit Kat Klub—an encounter that launched one of America’s most controversial political power couples.

A Pattern of Unwanted Attention?

This isn’t the first time Thompson has shared the story—she first revealed it in 2017 on The Graham Norton Show. But with Trump now back in the White House, the anecdote hits differently.

“It’s one thing when you hear it about a reality TV star,” said political commentator Lisa Morales. “It’s another when the man making foreign policy decisions once cold-called an actress in her trailer for a date. It plays into long-standing questions about his treatment of women.”

For Thompson, the whole incident remains both surreal and telling. “I didn’t know what to say. I was absolutely astounded,” she said.

Whether you see it as an awkward footnote in Trump’s past—or a small glimpse into a bigger pattern—the moment adds yet another chapter to the president’s complicated history with women.