Meryl Streep sent a heartfelt email to Thompson following her surprise Oscar nomination that edged out the British actor

Meryl Streep has revealed how she sent her friend Emma Thompson an email expressing her shock over Thompson's exclusion from the Best Actress nominations at the Oscars.

Appearing on the Ellen talkshow in the US, Streep, whose nomination in the category for August: Osage County was relatively unexpected, said: "I was really shocked. And I wrote her a long, heartfelt email saying how bad I felt. And she wrote me back and said, 'Good.'"

It is Streep's 18th Oscar nomination, but she said she "didn't think I had a chance" of being nominated. "I'm so old news... There were so many performances this year that were great... there were a lot of surprises and injustices [in the nominations]."

It comes after some controversial comments Streep made about the film Thompson performed in, Saving Mr Banks, which portrays Walt Disney's courting of PL Travers as he tried to adapt her book Mary Poppins for the screen. As she presented a National Board of Review award to Thompson for her performance, Streep highlighted Disney's membership of an antisemitic lobbying organisation, and dubbed him a "gender bigot".

Last week, Disney's grandniece, the film producer Abigail Disney, came out in support of Streep's comments, saying: "Anti-Semite? Check. Misogynist? OF COURSE!! Racist? C'mon he made a film (Jungle Book) about how you should stay 'with your own kind' at the height of the fight over segregation... Saving Mr Banks was a brazen attempt by the company to make a saint out of the man."

You can see a portion of Streep's Ellen appearance – with sky-high levels of fawning from the host – in the video below.