Imelda Staunton’s crisp retort to noisy cinema eaters as The Crown star, 64, reveals she confronts viewers who play with their phones and eat Doritos
- Imelda Staunton says she tells people eating crisps in the cinema to keep quiet
- Such anti-social behaviour prompts a blunt regal slapdown from the actress
- The star of stage and screen also turned her ire on venues selling noisy food
She may be only 5ft but Imelda Staunton is nothing if not fearless when it comes to tackling the scourge of audiences eating noisily or using their phones
She may be only 5ft but Imelda Staunton is nothing if not fearless when it comes to tackling the scourge of audiences eating noisily or using their phones.
Such anti-social behaviour prompts a blunt regal slapdown from the actress, who will play The Queen in the fifth series of The Crown.
When she notices a fellow cinema or theatre audience member on their mobile or tucking into crisps, she tells them to keep quiet.
The 64-year-old said: ‘I will turn round and say, ‘Can you turn that off, please?’ A bloke came in with a big packet of Doritos and I just said to him, ‘What are you doing? You can’t eat those. You either eat them now before the film or afterwards’.’
The star of stage and screen also turned her ire on venues which use plastic glasses and sell noisy food.
She asked: ‘Why are you selling crisps? I just do not get it.
‘And also none of us can be without food for five minutes. And the drinks! Plastic glasses falling on the floor when there’s a quiet moment.’
Last year, the Society of London Theatre teamed up with a security firm to test the wearing of bodycams by staff after an increase in aggression and rowdiness.
Miss Staunton, who stars in ITV’s four-part family drama Flesh and Blood starting on Monday, also admitted to being baffled by how some actors live for their mobiles.
When she notices a fellow cinema or theatre audience member on their mobile or tucking into crisps, she tells them to keep quiet
She told Radio Times that they jump straight on to their phones after an emotional scene.
‘I do wonder: why can’t you just be ‘here’ today? This is your job. There is nothing more important than this moment now,’ she said.
‘And it’s not just on film sets. It’s everywhere. Now if people work in an office, long gone are the days when it was ‘No personal calls, please’ – it’s just all day.’
Olivia Colman, pictured above, previously played The Queen in the The Crown. Imelda Staunton will play Her Majesty in the fifth series
Miss Staunton is no stranger to red carpets but wishes young actresses would not always wear dresses and pander to photographers.
‘I’d like them all to go in DJs one year, just to mess it up a bit,’ she said.
‘And there’s always got to be a bum shot, hasn’t there? When the photographers shout out, ‘Turn around!’ Just say, ‘No’.’
Miss Staunton and her husband of 36 years, Downton Abbey actor Jim Carter, 71, have a daughter Bessie, 26, who starred in ITV’s period drama Beecham House.
Motherhood, which came when she was 37, meant she was determined to create the perfect childhood.
‘I thought, at my age, ‘This has got to be absolutely right’. But then I think, so you should. A parent needs to work hard,’ she added.
The star of stage and screen also turned her ire on venues which use plastic glasses and sell noisy food. She asked: ‘Why are you selling crisps? I just do not get it’
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