‘The Crown’ Star Matt Smith: Queen Elizabeth Watched Show on Projector, Harry Called Me ‘Granddad’

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Matt Smith, who played Prince Philip in the first two seasons of The Crown, has revealed that Queen Elizabeth did watch the show—but not on a regular TV. “I heard the queen had watched it, she used to watch it on a projector on a Sunday night apparently,” Smith, speaking to NBC’s Today show Thursday, said.

Philip “definitely didn’t” watch the hit Netflix show, Smith added. Philip asked a friend of Smith’s at dinner if he worked on the show, and when the friend asked Philip if he watched The Crown, Philip allegedly replied “Don’t be ridiculous.” Smith said he had once met King Charles, telling the now-monarch how “fabulous” his red, brogue-looking shoes were. Smith also said he had met Prince Harry at a polo match. “He walked up to me, and he went ‘Granddad,’” Smith said, motioning the words were accompanied by a handshake. “He watched the show. I can’t claim to know that he watches it currently, but he watched a bit of it,” Smith said of Harry.

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Smith said that, while Philip had an image of being “a bit of a cad, someone who made social gaffes, he was a real modernizer and really interesting. I fell in love with Philip really to be honest.” Philip and the queen were “a fabulous couple,” the star added. “He loved her, he really made her laugh.”

Smith, now starring as Daemon Targaryen in Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, said he hoped to return to the U.K. to be there for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral Monday. “I think it’s a piece of history. I don’t think we will ever have a monarch who serves for 70 years again... I want to be in London. I want to experience it, I think I want to share in the ceremony of it really.”

Smith said he wasn’t sure if he’d go to the event itself, and that he would more likely “watch it in my local pub with a group of friends.”

Smith was then bestowed the ultimate Today show benediction, doing Al Roker’s national weather forecast.

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