Netflix's hit series The Crown has taken the world by storm and many of the actors portraying real-life Royals have had the luxury of meeting members of the Royal family!
Gillian Anderson and Olivia Colman On Meeting Royals
On The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Gillian Anderson and Olivia Colman joined Stephen to promote the highly anticipated 4th season of Netflix's The Crown. Olivia will be reprising her role of Her Majesty the Queen once more and Gillian will be debuting as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Stephen grilled them about their experiences meeting members of the Royal family. "Both of you have met Her Majesty and both of you have honours given to you by Her Majesty. What's it like going to Buckingham? Is it nerve-wracking to be there because you might do something wrong or is everybody perfectly comfortable and it's like any other flat?"
"It's not like most flats I've been to!" Olivia responded. She explained that her first Royal encounter was actually with Princess Anne and stated, "everything we've done in The Crown is toned down compared to the actual palace. There were endless people with gold frills on their shoulders and all sorts of different outfits and different uniforms."
Luckily for the tense Olivia, "The staff were so sweet and if you looked nervous they'd say 'don't worry, it's all ok do you want a cup of tea?' They helped you along the way. It was an extraordinary experience, one I will never forget. I said yes mainly for my mom and dad. They had an absolute ball. Very lucky, it doesn't happen to many people."
Gillian Meeting Queen Elizabeth
Gillian has met Queen Elizabeth II a few times and said, "Very often there is someone who walks with her and whispers in her ear who it is she is about to meet. I mean, she meets a lot of people and she's not going to remember who everybody is. She has a Queen whisperer."
There were also many intimidating rules set in place such as "You're not meant to speak before you're spoken to." Apparently, "It can be a little bit awkward. She may ask you questions about yourself or how you're enjoying the thing she's just been told that you do."
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Gillian also described how her meeting the Queen was abruptly ended when a group of the staff formed a line with trays and began closing in on the remaining guests! "They were walking in unison towards you in a line, making the room smaller and smaller and smaller. It was like in Star Wars!"
Season 4 of The Crown finally premiers on November 15th! See Gillian and Olivia speak to Stephen about their meetings with the Royal family here!
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