Netflix The Crown's Imelda Staunton reveals Hollywood star she'll never work with again

Dame Imelda Staunton, who has worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood and British stage and screen, has revealed she won't be working with Steven Seagal again.

The unlikely pair previously starred together in the 2006 spy movie Shadow Man, but it seems that will be their last collaboration. The esteemed actress, who was recently honoured with a Damehood on King Charles' Birthday Honours List, stated: "I wouldn't work with Steven Seagal again.

"It was a sub-James Bond in Romania and I played the US ambassador. The film sees Seagal play a former CIA agent go in search of his missing daughter. And it seems Seagal - who denied a MeToo claim from another woman - was quite the diva."

The film features Seagal as a former CIA agent searching for his missing daughter, and according to Staunton, he was quite the diva on set. "Before I left England the producer said 'I just want to tell you Steven does not do reverse scenes' which means he doesn't do a scene unless the camera is on him," the 68-year-old actress recalled.

This meant whenever Staunton was speaking and only the back of Seagal's head was visible, a stand-in was used while a Romanian student and set assistant read out his lines. But that wasn't the end of it, reports the Mirror.

"He kept calling my character 'Darling' when I was supposed to be the US ambassador! ," said Staunton, who portrayed the late Queen Elizabeth II in the final two series of The Crown. "It took me all my strength not to get up and say 'This is not what I do'."

Dame Imelda Staunton has shared a humorous anecdote about the time she and her husband, Jim Carter of Downtown Abbey fame, attended the Emmys in Los Angeles.

Recounting her experience at a luxurious hotel, she chuckled over a pool sign that read: "Do not enter this pool if you have active diarrhoea," jokingly adding during her talk for Riverstone Living: "I was like 'We are Emmy nominees here!'." The couple, who reside in West Hampstead, London, enjoy a life less glitzy than Hollywood, though they've had the opportunity to act together occasionally, including in the Downton Abbey film.

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Imelda is set to take on a new role in the 1963 Broadway musical, Hello Dolly!, at the London Palladium, with Jim's support. Reflecting on their relationship, Imelda said: "I was 26 when I met Jim and he was 34, and a year later we were married. It is lovely working together when we can."

With nearly five decades dedicated to the arts, Dame Imelda's illustrious career includes roles in Paddington, the Harry Potter series, Vera Drake, Shakespeare In Love, and notably as the Queen in Netflix's hit series, The Crown. At 68, she expresses being "thrilled and genuinely humbled" by her damehood.

However, for Imelda, it's the audience's applause and her husband Jim's approval that hold the greatest value. She expressed: "We have had such a really great and fortunate career. People always ask: 'What ambitions do you have? ' I never really had ambitions. All I ever wanted to do was work. I want to keep working. The satisfaction of the audience reaction - that is a wonderful feeling." Adding: "Fun is second for me, work is first."

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