The clip that Seth Meyers played on the Jan. 25 episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers sounds like a fever dream: U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II, and the rest of the British royal family dance an elaborate choreography to Lizzo’s “Good As Hell.” In actuality, what Seth, 47, shared was a behind-the-scenes clip of Olivia Colman, 46, Gillian Anderson, 52, Tobias Menzies, 46, and other members of Netflix’s The Crown dancing along to the song. “Olivia apparently does a dance class in the area that she lives with a bunch of friends on a regular basis,” Gillian, the guest on Monday’s episode, told Seth. “The last time she did the class, they had danced to that Lizzo song, and she asked if we would happen to be interested in doing it.
“She would video it, and then she would just share it only with her friends, the other dancers. So it was never meant to see the light of day, and yet here we are,” added the X-Files actress. After the clip aired, Gillian said she was “so humiliated…The look on my face…. there’s such delight and shame.” Though, judging by how much of the wiggle Gillian puts in at the last bit, she’s clearly having fun. Plus, Seth was right in his estimation: the actual Margaret Thatcher couldn’t pull off those moves. (Jump around 1:47 in the above video to check it out.)
It’s been almost a year since Gillian first revealed the astonishing makeup job that transformed her into the notorious British politician. Gillian joined season 4 as “The Iron Lady,” a role that she was excited to take on. “I am so excited to be joining the cast and crew of The Crown and to have the opportunity to portray such a complicated and controversial woman,” she said in a statement. “Thatcher was undoubtedly formidable, but I am relishing exploring beneath the surface and, dare I say, falling in love with the icon who, whether loved or despised, defined an era.”
Initially, fans of The Crown learned that the show was going to end following season 5 after creator Peter Morgan revealed that it would be the “perfect time and place to stop.” However, in July 2020, Peter reversed course and said that show will continue for its initial plan of six seasons. “As we started to discuss the storylines for series five, it soon became clear that in order to do justice to the richness and complexity of the story, we should go back to the original plan and do six seasons,” he said in a statement, per The Hollywood Reporter. “To be clear, season six will not bring us any closer to present day — it will simply enable us to cover the same period in greater detail.”