Olivia Colman shared a New Year's Eve confession on national television as she admitted to sneaking home a specially-made prop while she was filming for The Crown. The Academy Award-winner was being interviewed on the Graham Norton Show on New Year's Eve last night when the host brought up her unusual memento featuring her own face.
Graham asked her: "You do have a really cool thing on display - it's something you got from The Crown. This is such a good story - did you nick it or was it given to you?" Looking sheepish, Olivia replied: "Umm... It was a lovely props person, who said 'I'm not allowed to give you this but here take that...put it in your bag.'"
She explained: "On my first day on The Crown, which [the episode] was about the stamp, there was an envelope on the desk 'to Her Majesty the Queen' and it had my face on the stamp." She said she was so excited she took it home, and it's now on display.
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The stamp is fashioned as replica of those featuring Queen Elizabeth II in her early reign, whom Olivia played in the hit Netflix series. When Graham showed a photo of the stamp she exclaimed it was "so cool", with the audience giving a round of applause at seeing the likeness to her depiction of the late monarch.
She was asked by fellow guest and actor Michael Ward, who rose to fame in drama series Top Boy, if he could have one of the stamps but told him: "I only have one!" The pair are co-stars in the new Sam Mendes film Empire of Light.
The discussion arose after Olivia revealed she keeps her Oscar hidden away in a cupboard as it feels "a bit ostentatious" to have it out on display, adding: "It was out for the first year but I think after that you should just crack on, forget it happened and keep working."
It was not the first time she had confessed to the stamp swiping - in 2019 she told Emmy Magazine she got "really overexcited" about it and sent a photo of it to her husband, even though that "probably was not allowed" either. She told them she had the stamp framed in her downstairs loo.
Comics Hugh Laurie and Romesh Ranganathan were also on the line-up on last night's Graham Norton Show, now available to watch on catch-up, with Lioness captain Leah Williamson joining them on the sofa later on in the programme as well as the stars of the West End show Cabaret.
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