The Queen - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Queen or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Queen

[addison]

When Alistair Campbell (Mark Bazeley) asks Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) if he has seen the day's papers, Blair sarcastically replies, "No, I thought I'd give 'em a miss today. Of course I've seen the papers!" This line was improvised by Sheen.

[lonnie]

Tony Blair, who claimed he had never seen this movie, was suspected of stealing from the movie when he wrote his autobiography, "A Journey". In the scene where he and the Queen meet for the first time, Elizabeth says, "You are my tenth Prime Minister, Mr. Blair. My first, of course, was Winston Churchill." Peter Morgan has said that he completely made up the dialogue for the scene, but it is unlikely he guessed such a specific line exactly right.

[kristina]

Dame Helen Mirren's performance received a five-minute standing ovation at the premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

[oscar]

Dame Helen Mirren (The Queen) and Roger Allam (Robin Janvrin) adored each other, and got along together quite well on the set.

[francisco]

Alex Jennings, who plays Prince Charles in this movie, played his grand uncle, The Duke of Windsor, the abdicated King Edward VIII in the Netflix original series, The Crown (2016). Incidentally, the show was also written by Peter Morgan.

[miriam]

During this movie, Alistair Campbell is seen inventing the term "The People's Princess" to describe Diana, Princess of Wales. However, in actuality, on the morning of her death, the BBC had been interviewing one of its own correspondents, who actually used the phrase at least two hours before the Prime Minister was interviewed and was heard to use the phrase. Presumably he or Campbell had heard it and so used it. So it was not invented by either of them.

[sandra]

Screenwriter Peter Morgan reconstructed the events of the week after the death of Princess Diana through extensive interviews, with many unnamed sources close to the Prime Minister and the royal family. Many of these sources were able to corroborate the accounts of others, giving Morgan enough information to imagine intervening scenes.

[liam]

While driving in the SUV at Balmoral, Prince Charles (Alex Jennings) asks the Queen (Dame Helen Mirren), "Why do they hate us so much?" The original reply from the Queen was to correct Charles by saying, "You". Mirren asked to cut the line, and it was changed to the more subtle, "Not 'us', dear."

[kristina]

Dame Helen Mirren was the star of the television series "Prime Suspect", in which she played a Detective Chief Inspector who was the first woman to hold that job in her district. In the first mini-series, when one of her employees struggles with what he should call her, Mirren's character says, "I don't like Ma'am. I'm not the bloody Queen."

[melinda]

Some aspects of the characters are known to be true to their real-life counterparts. Cherie Blair's hostility to the monarchy has been widely reported, including her refusal to curtsy (said to amuse the Queen in private, as it does in this movie). According to Peter Morgan, "cabbage" is an actual term of endearment Prince Phillip uses for his wife.

[elmer]

One of several political movies/politically themed movies featuring Michael Sheen. The others include The Deal (2003), Frost/Nixon (2008), The Special Relationship (2010), and Kill the Messenger (2014).

[bernard]

One of the biggest costs of this movie was using a helicopter to fly over the stalking party to get a view of the Scottish countryside. Director Stephen Frears was in the helicopter to get the shot, and was sick with the flu at the time. Regardless, he thought it was worth it to obtain such gorgeous scenery for this movie.

[melinda]

Dame Helen Mirren's Best Actress Oscar winning performance was the only nominee in the category in a Best Picture nominee that year.

[nora]

Director Stephen Frears chose to film the Queen crying quietly to herself from behind her, as he felt that royalists would be uncomfortable seeing the Queen portrayed in such an intimate and emotionally vulnerable state. He then threw in a little joke for the ladies by depicting the Queen rubbing her wet eyes and nose on an extraordinarily expensive scarf.

[linda]

Dame Helen Mirren was praised by Queen Elizabeth II and invited for dinner at Buckingham Palace, but could not attend due to other filming commitments at the time.

[gerald]

10 Downing Street was portrayed as slightly dilapidated, poorly decorated, and middle-class. This is supposedly how the residence actually is, and the real Cherie Blair was supposedly appalled when she first saw where the family would be living.

[jesse]

Dame Helen Mirren says transforming herself into the Queen came almost naturally after the wig and glasses, especially since she shares a default facial expression, a slightly down-turned mouth, with the monarch. She also regularly reviewed film and video footage of Elizabeth and kept photographs in her trailer during production. Screenwriter Peter Morgan said it was convincing enough that, by the end of production, crew members who had been accustomed to slouching or relaxing when they addressed her were standing straight up and respectfully folding their hands behind their backs.