The Queen has told actress Kristin Scott Thomas that it will be “quite a challenge” when she plays the monarch on stage.
The beaming theatre and film actress described herself as “clearly very happy” after Her Majesty presented her with a damehood for services to drama at Buckingham Palace.
Dame Kristin, 54, is set to play the Queen on the London stage from April.
She takes over from Dame Helen Mirren in The Audience, which is inspired by the Queen’s private weekly meetings with the country’s prime ministers over her six-decade reign.
On what the Queen said to her as she presented the honour, Dame Kristin said: “She asked me what I was doing next, so I had to tell her and she said it would be quite a challenge.”
It is the latest role for the Cornwall-born actress, whose career has seen her honoured in both the UK and France, where she now lives.
She was made an OBE in 2003 and two years later was presented with France’s Legion of Honour in recognition of her career.
Dame Kristin is perhaps best known for roles in The English Patient, Gosford Park and Four Weddings And A Funeral, and currently stars in Suite Francaise.
She previously said of her damehood: “I love it. I think it’s the most wonderful thing to be given. I feel really honoured and a bit nervous… It’s a sort of responsibility because I have to step up to the plate and deliver the goods.
“In my mind’s eye, a Dame had always been someone with a couple of Jack Russells and a tweed skirt and a stout stick.”
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