Actress Lily Collins is itching to appear in The Crown, 30 years after snubbing Princess Diana and hurling a toy at Prince Charles.
Lily – star of hit Netflix show Emily in Paris and the daughter of Genesis star Phil – loves the royal TV drama.
At the age of three, she famously refused to hand a bouquet of flowers to Diana.
Lily was with her rock star dad Phil and mum Jill Tavelman at a Prince’s Trust bash at the time.
Now 33, Lily said: “Legend has it, I was presenting Princess Diana with a bouquet and when she went to take it, I then tried to pull it back away, as you do, you know… I guess I just didn’t know protocol.”
A photographer captured a beaming Diana accepting the posy from a serious Lily.
And she later rubbed shoulders with semi-royalty when she joined some of the cast of The Crown in a 2018 BBC adaptation of Les Miserables.
They included Josh O’Connor who played Charles, Erin Doherty, who played Princess Anne, and Olivia Colman, who starred as the Queen.
Lily said: “Olivia was already cast as the Queen when we were filming.
"I was a huge fan of The Crown and I was grilling her, asking her questions, but she was sworn to utmost secrecy and couldn’t tell me anything.
“Josh was auditioning for Prince Charles during the making of our BBC show, and so I was asking him a bunch of questions.
“Oh, and Erin Doherty, who plays Anne, was in our show so it was like everyone from our show went on to do The Crown.
“I was like, ‘Umm, I’m available!’ Everything about it is so good.”
Lily, who was born in Sussex but now lives in Los Angeles, was talking on the Literally! podcast. She revealed she went to “quite a few events” as a child and “met really fascinating people” – including the royals.
Lily said: “I was told that I also met Prince Charles and we were playing with some toys that I had and I think it was like a toy telephone and I threw it at him. You just don’t do that, but as a kid you’re like, ‘I’m playing with you… I don’t know any better’.”
Lily married director Charlie McDowell in Colorado last year.
Emily in Paris, about a US marketing executive who moves to France, was a global hit for Netflix, pulling in more than 50 million viewers.
