Which ‘The Studio’ Guest Star Is Best at Playing Themself?

Emma Thompson has two secrets. The first is a minor scandal — she’s a lesbian — and the second is a major one: She’s American, born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. Neither of these secrets is true, but they drive the plot of “Emma,” a 1997 episode of Ellen in which Thompson guest-stars as herself . She’s fantastic in the appearance, sharp and silly all at once, and the Lawrence Broch–written script allows her to transcend how we think about “Emma Thompson,” the Oscar-winning actress of revered British costume dramas, by making her play completely against type. Thompson’s American accent is something to behold: flat, inelegant, and charmless, which is to say, the opposite of how Thompson usually sounds, and for playing the gay American version of herself, Thompson won the Emmy for Guest Sta