Real-Life Royalty Meets TV Royalty! The Crown's Olivia Colman Receives Honor from Princess Anne
Olivia Colman just returned to her stomping grounds — onscreen, at least.
The actress, who plays Queen Elizabeth in seasons 3 and 4 of The Crown, had a brush with her character’s real-life daughter at Buckingham Palace. Princess Anne (played by British actress Erin Doherty in the Netflix hit) made Colman a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) officer for her services to drama on Thursday.
The two smiled and chatted during their exchange, for which the Oscar winner wore a checked coat featuring a trapeze silhouette and flared sleeves paired with a whimsical headpiece.
Although the Queen sometimes hands out the honors herself, other senior members of the royal family fill in for the 93-year-old monarch.
But this wasn’t Colman’s first visit to Buckingham Palace. The actress admitted to picking up a souvenir during a recent charity event hosted by Prince William
“My husband [Ed Sinclair] stole some loo [toilet] roll just to say we got it from Buckingham Palace,” Colman, 45, told the Sunday Times.
“I was very uncool, and he was charming,” she added about the royal dad of three. “He has that thing where he makes you feel you’re the most exciting person in the room.”
Netflix released a full-length trailer for season 3 of The Crown earlier this month, giving fans their first extended look at the royal family during the 1960s set to a cover of Bob Dylan’s classic “The Times They Are A-Changin.’ “
“The country is bankrupt. Our national security is in tatters…This is no longer peace time,” a voiceover narrates.
And the monarch wonders of her part in it all. “This country was still great when I came to throne,” she laments. “All that’s happened on my watch is the place has fallen apart.”
Times change. Duty endures. Season Three of The Crown arrives 17th November. pic.twitter.com/c3pzvSKM6k
— The Crown (@TheCrownNetflix) October 21, 2019
Colman’s Queen Elizabeth also has to manage rocky relationships within her own family. Her son and heir Prince Charles, played by Josh O’Connor, struggles to find his voice as well as balance his royal commitments with falling in love with Camilla Parker-Bowles.
“Am I listened to in this family? Am I seen for who and what I am? No,” Charles says in a heated discussion with his mother.
He’s also advised “never turn your back on true love” and to “watch out for your family.” When Charles responds, “They mean well,” he’s told, “No, they don’t.”
Tensions are also rising between the Queen and her younger sister Princess Margaret, played by Helena Bonham-Carter.
“Frustrations and resentments can build up from a life as a support act,” Margaret says.
The third season, which spans 1964 to 1977, also stars Ben Daniels as Tony Armstrong-Jones, Erin Doherty as Princess Anne, Marion Bailey as the Queen Mother and Jason Watkins as Prime Minister Harold Wilson.
Season 3 of The Crown hits Netflix on Nov. 17.
