Last Night In Soho star Thomasin McKenzie has paid tribute to her late co-star Dame Diana Rigg, hailing her as “an icon” with “a really great sense of humour”.
The British actress, whose career included 1960s TV classic The Avengers, a Bond film and the sprawling HBO series Game Of Thrones, died on September 10 2020, aged 82, and the new psychological horror film, directed by Edgar Wright, features her last screen role.
New Zealand star McKenzie told the PA news agency: “I remember telling my grandmother I was going to be working with Diana Rigg and my grandma is 94 and was alive while Diana Rigg was out there.
“She’s had such an incredible career and has moved so many people around the world, she’s a real icon, and my grandmother was pretty excited to say the least.
“She was wonderful, she was really wonderful.”
In the film McKenzie plays a young woman who travels from her home in Cornwall to study fashion in London, where she mysteriously travels to the 1960s and encounters an aspiring singer, played by The Queen’s Gambit’s Anya Taylor-Joy.
Reflecting on the shoot, McKenzie said: “I have a funny story about Diana actually.
“I used my Cornish accent all throughout the shoot, in between takes and everything, just so it was a natural as possible.
“So I always used my Cornish accent with Diana, she didn’t realise I was from New Zealand, she thought I was Cornish.
“And so my mum (the New Zealand actress Miranda Harcourt) came to set with me one day and she was desperate to meet Diana so I introduced them.
“My mum starts talking in her strong Kiwi accent.
“I remember Diana just doing a double take like, ‘What is going on?’
“She was very confused.
“So I just thought that was quite funny.
“Diana had a really, really great sense of humour and I really loved how Edgar and Diana bonded so beautifully, they really loved being in each other’s presence and I felt very honoured being able to witness that.”
Last Night In Soho is out now in UK cinemas.