Gillian Anderson has shared a picture of her face looking very bruised in a series of snaps from the set of The Great season two.
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The Crown star took to Instagram to post a string of behind-the-scenes photos from the Hulu comedy-drama, which stars Elle Fanning as a young Catherine the Great and Nicholas Hoult as her husband.
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The images, including the one of Gillian with fake redness and bruising on her face, were captioned: "A nice little visit to the palace," to which Alistair Petrie, her Sex Education co-star, jokingly replied: "Consumption suits you."
Alongside her closeup photo were other images from the set, including one of her cuddling up to on-screen daughter Elle Fanning and another of Nicholas Hoult being playful and pulling a funny face.
The Sex Education actress plays Catherine’s mother, Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp, in the series, which premiered in the US on Friday 19 November.
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Speaking about joining the cast for season two, Gillian revealed that she wasn’t familiar with the show at first. She told Collider, "I was not familiar with the show. I got the scripts before I watched any of the episodes. After I’d read the first script, for episode seven, I was so taken with the dialogue and it was so clear what the level of humour was in the world that they were living in."
© Photo: InstagramGillian posted a snap of her bruised face
"I laughed so many times out loud. And then, I watched the first season. That type of irreverence is so right up my alley. It’s delightful to watch and it was a lot of fun to get to be able to say, 'Yes, I wanna jump into this world because it really appeals to me.' That’s how it happened," she added.
For those who have yet to watch the series, it is loosely based on Catherine the Great’s rise to power and follows the Russian Empress in her youth and her marriage to depraved husband Emperor Peter III.
Gillian posted a series of snaps from set
The second series sees Catherine take her throne and focuses on her attempts to introduce the Age of Enlightenment to Russia. As well as preparing for motherhood, Catherine must battle her court, her team and her mother in a bid to liberate her country.
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