Emma Thompson Abhors The Word “Content” (And We Don’t Blame Her): “You Don’t Want To Hear Your Stories Described As ‘Content’”

Emma Thompson supports her fellow creatives, and had some choice words for those who choose to employ the word “content” to describe their life’s work.

“To hear people talk about ‘content’ makes me feel like the stuffing inside a sofa cushion,” she told Creative Artists Agency (CAA) co-chairman Bryan Lourd at Thursday’s Royal Television Society Conference in Cambridge, per Variety.

The British actress proceeded to ask what people mean by their use of the word “content,” deeming it as “just a rude word for creative people.”

“I know there are students in the audience: you don’t want to hear your stories described as ‘content’ or your acting or your producing described as ‘content,’” she said. “That’s just like coffee grounds in the sink or something. It’s, I think, a very misleading word. And I think it’s one of the things that maybe the language around the way in which we speak to one another, and the way in which the executives speak to creatives, the way in which we have to understand one another and combine better.”

The British actress explained how she “want[s] to feel different after [she’s] watched something,” noting that the term “content” has lesser value and could never be synonymous with the power vested in a creative project.

“I want to feel as though I’ve been shifted slightly, even if it’s just my mood or I’ve learned something extraordinary,” she added. “That is something we just have to keep on thinking about it because that takes you away from this thing of ‘content.’ What is the story that you want to hear and that you want to tell that you think will make people feel different, safer, stronger?”

Thompson’s discussion with Lourd delved into the increasingly algorithmic approach to projects being approved in the industry, which Thompson described as “dangerous.”

“All the talk of data and algorithms and this analysis of formulas of what people want to see or don’t want to see — I think is not true,” she shared, claiming that “the individual idea and that thing that grows in that tribe who assembled around it, is what makes for a hit,” and is “what drives our businesses.”

Thompson’s sentiments surrounding the devaluing of creatives seemed to be present in her talk of the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, which she described as “sort of hidden.”

“There’s something about the words, ‘Oh, well, an actors strike’ that doesn’t sound the same to people as ‘the doctors are on strike’ or ‘the miners are on strike,’” she said. “It’s got a different feel to it because we don’t work all the time and I suppose that’s the point is we’re self employed.”

Nonetheless, she expressed confidence that those on strike are “closer to the end than the beginning” and that “there is now an urgency around these kinds of decisions.”