-I'm so very happy that you are here.
It's impossible for me to not picture you as Princess Margaret
in "The Crown," now.
This is a role you almost did not get though, is that correct?
-Yes, actually. I had quite a strange screen test.
I nearly -- nearly ruined it for myself.
-You nearly blew it? You're putting this on yourself?
-I nearly blew it. -What'd you do?
-Well, it was my birthday. -Okay.
-And I was having birthday lunch with my friends.
I was going out in these, like, quite bad dungarees.
Anyway, as I was walking out of the house,
I did a double take in the mirror and I thought,
"Oh, my ankles looks so pale."
And it was, like, a summer's day.
So I sort of whacked on some, like, instant, sort of,
fake tan I found in my sister's drawer.
-This is because you didn't want to have bad looking ankles
on your birthday? -Yes. I mean, come on.
-Yeah, okay. We've all been there.
-We've all been there. -Yeah.
-Yeah.
-You want to have birthday ankles. It's your day.
Yeah. -You know what I mean?
-Yeah. -Like, they've got to be
sun-kissed for whatever reason.
So I, kind of, like, slapped it on -- slapdash.
Very slapdash and then went to my screen test
and I borrowed some of mum's ill-fitting skirts
and, like, pearls just to look a little bit Margarety.
And I changed, and I just forgot about the ankles.
[ Laughter ]
And I walked into my screen test,
and, um, all four of the directors and Peter Morgan,
the creator, just went straight to my ankles.
Because I was wearing this skirt,
and they were looking at them for about ten minutes
as I was trying to get into character
and I was trying to be Margaret. And then I looked down,
and eventually Peter said,
"Look, what has happened to your legs?"
And it was a fast-developing, very strong, kind of,
industrial fake tan.
[ Laughter ]
So, they were like luminous orange.
-So you had, sort of, a regular colored leg into the --
-Very pale. -Okay.
-Into, like, what? Did it look like a sock?
-Yeah, sort of, fluorescent football sock.
-Okay. -I'd say. Yeah.
-So, a very strange choice for a member of the royal family.
-Do you know what I mean? -Yeah.
-I mean, Peter said -- I mean, honestly,
I think he looked at my ankles more than my face
for the whole hour.
And he said it nearly cost me the job.
-Wow! -Yeah.
-Well, I'm glad you persevered through that.
-I know. I pushed through. -Yeah.
The great actors always have to handle
bad self-applied tanning at some point.
[ Laughter ]
-At some point, it happens. Doesn't it?
-It happens. It happens to the best of it.
-It happens to the best of us. And that was an early --
that -- I haven't used fake tanner since.
-When he auditioned for "There Will Be Blood,"
Daniel Day-Lewis, crazy-bad fake tan.
-Is that true? -No.
[ Laughter ]
-I mean, Seth, I'm incredibly gullible.
-Yeah. Oh, I'll keep that in mind
and enjoy the rest of this interview.
[ Laughter ]
So, you -- this is a -- because you play a royal,
and this time where people are obsessed with royals
because of the wedding, do people, sort of, assume
that because you play one on TV,
that you have extra intel into the royal family?
-I mean, all the time. People are like.
"so, how do you think Harry feels with the roast chicken
and Meghan? How do you think he did it?"
I'm like, "Well, I played his great aunt in a show.
I think -- I'm sure he's overcome with emotion."
And the Queen, I mean, all of them.
-But you did -- you fell in love with Princess Margaret, yes?
-Quite right. -You really did.
-Too obsessed. -Too obsessed.
You so obsessed that you -- you framed a picture of her
and the Queen and put it in your bathroom.
[ Laughter ]
So, now people who go in this bathroom know that
that's someone you play on a TV show.
-I know. Most people don't, I don't think.
-Oh. -And they just think I'm
just obsessed with the Queen on horseback
on the front cover of "Tatler." -Yeah.
-The thing is, is what happened was I got so nervous
before playing her, I just was like,
I need to order every picture I could find.
And, like, put it all over my house,
and then somehow when I wake up or when I wee --
You know what I mean? Like absorb her personality.
-Oh, wow. -Gradually by osmosis.
-Oh, so you don't want to lose a single moment.
-No. -Yeah.
-And why? I mean, they both look dreadful.
-Yeah. -Sorry Queenie,
but you don't look great. -I do have a question.
Is this -- is this you in the mirror?
-That was my mum. -Oh, that's your mom trying --
[ Laughter ]
So, she's -That's my mum.
She hates pictures.
Oh, she's gonna be so embarrassed.
But look. Like a creepy stalker.
-By the way no one's going to be like,
"That's a terrible picture of your mom."
You can't even tell it's her. [ Laughter ]
-Also, by the way, that was the tea towel from my kitchen.
She put it in to make the loo look nicer.
-Oh, really? -There's not usually
anything there, yeah. -Did you say,
"Hey, I need you to take a picture
of this for television?" -I did, yeah.
-And then she said "Okay, I'm gonna --
I'm gonna spruce it up." -She drove 'round --
She drove 'round to my house and took it.
[ Laughter ] -Really?
-She's like my life. -Oh, that's great.
Well, it's -- she's obviously not a professional.
[ Laughter ]
But I think she did a really good job.
-That's, like, not even an eye. Yeah.
-I mean, it's fantastic. And obviously it's a place --
who wouldn't want that as a bathroom?
-You think so? I think I need to take it down.
-I think you -- yeah, you maybe need to, like --
or put, like, something else up to complement it.
-What should I put? -I don't know.
-Maybe I do. -But maybe some --
Definitely don't put someone you've played on TV.
-I know. -Like, don't make that dramatic.
-It's kind of cringe, isn't it? I mean, she's all over my house.
Like my DVD collection. -Is it also --
'cause you live with your sister?
-And my best friend. -And your best friend.
And do you also -- is it true that you make them listen
to music that Princess Margaret listened to?
-Yeah. I know, terrible. -So, what did she listen to?
-So, she has this desert island disc on YouTube.
I really recommend it. I'm such a desperate fan.
It's quite embarrassing.
[ Laughter ]
So she talks about her favorite music.
And one is "Scotland the Brave" on the bagpipes.
So I'd blast it out on a Sunday. [ Laughter ]
It was like rah, rah, rah, rah, rah!
Like that, literally.
And my sister is, like, waking up to it at 9:00 a.m.,
like, "Please, dear God. I hate having an actress as a sister."
And then, like, none of them are actresses.
But they put up with me. And like, the DVD collection
is like "Royal Family," "The Royal Wedding,"
"The Queen at 50."
You know, "Margaret and Peter." It's just really --
It's pathetic. -And do you watch it a lot?
-To reminisce and, like, cry over it.
[ Laughter ]
My sister. -This is very exciting.
You are doing a show in London right now.
"Julia." -"Julie."
-"Julie," sorry. -No, no. It's okay.
-Oh, I saw you in "Julia." It was not as good,
so I'm glad you've moved on to "Julie."
[ Laughter ]
So, I probably just -- but there was --
I always am fascinated by things
that happened during live performances of shows.
You had something that you would not have predicted
happening in a performance of "Julie."
-Yes. It was one of the first previews.
And someone in the circle -- or the balcony.
At the end when everyone was clapping, they had a fight,
and a man tried to push another man off it
while they were clapping. I was like, "Was it me?
[ Laughter ]
Was it something I did? Is it something I said?"
Maybe they hated it. But, yeah.
It was all over the news.
-So, it was, like, during the applause?
And nobody ever figured out what the conflict was?
-No, it was just two guys. -Wow.
-Like a big bust up.
-It doesn't seem like you would go get wasted
and go see "Julie."
[ Laughter ] -I know.
I know. Maybe they were just, like, glugging it down.
glugging something down during it.
Or maybe they just -- I just -- in fact,
what was the fight about? -Yeah.
All right. But, hopefully -- Please come back,
and hopefully we'll get to the bottom of that,
'cause maybe we'll have those guys on as well,
and we can both ask them. -Do you know what?
They'd probably -- yeah. -They'd probably love it.
Yeah. -Yeah.
Probably wouldn't talk about Margaret so much.
-That is true. Hey, thanks so much for being here.
It's such a pleasure to meet you.
[ Cheers and applause ] Vanessa Kirby everybody.