Jason Watkins is simply brilliant in his turn as the Prime Minister Harold Wilson in the new series ofThe Crown, and sat down with HELLO! to chat about working with Olivia Colman, meeting real life members of the royal family and about the tears and laughter on set. Discussing whether there were tears for Olivia behind-the-scenes as she was required to remain so stoic on camera, he said: "I suppose there was! And laughter! I think her emotions are on her fingertips, I mean they're always very accessible and that's one of her gifts. She's so brilliant and intelligent and instinctively good at guiding those bubbling feelings. It's very much about her being able to sit on them. She's got a lot of emotion."
WATCH: Jason Watkins chats about The Crown
He also joked about returning to film more scenes for the series after The Favourite actress won an Oscar, saying: "She's quite good. I mean, she's alright. We filmed together and do a scene then I came back a couple of weeks later and she'd got yet another award. She didn't shout about it I have to say. Just put it on the table!"
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Jason opened up about his friendship with Prince William
While Jason might be acting in the royal show, he has met real life members of the royal family as well. Speaking about meeting Prince William, he explained: "He's an incredibly nice guy, I've done charity events with him and he's spoken really beautiful about the causes which I've been championing, we've both patrons of Child Bereavement UK. He's shared his feelings about his own loss and that's the humanising of the royal family – if that's the right word, they're human anyway… He's a very striking and brilliant young man."
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Speaking about how the younger royals have changed the monarchy, he continued: "They [were] very stiff upper lip and I suppose the younger royals are trying to break it down and talk about mental health, and I think that's extraordinary. And I think the general public find it a real comfort and I think it's necessary. As an apolitical group, those are great causes that they can champion."