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Joan Collins hopes King Charles will ‘do as well as his mother’

Joan Collins hopes King Charles will ‘do as well as his mother’

Dame Joan Collins has said she hopes the King will “do as well as his mother” after he ascended the throne following the Queen’s death.

The veteran actress, 89, has won a string of accolades throughout her career including a Golden Globe, and was made a dame for her services to charity in 2015.

She was among the famous faces attending the British Film Institute (BFI) Luminous fundraising gala on Thursday evening, which celebrates British filmmakers and raises funds to support up-and-coming talent through an auction selling “money-can’t-buy” experiences.

Speaking on the red carpet of the gala, Dame Joan shared her aspirations for the new King, saying: “I hope that he will do as well as his mother.”

The Dynasty star also revealed that the piece of advice she would have liked to have given to her younger self would be “don’t take any notice of anything”.

Also among the attendees was Rebel Wilson, who encouraged up-and-coming talent in the film industry to “get out there and make things yourself”.

The 42-year-old Australian actress, best known for her comedic roles in Pitch Perfect and Bridesmaids, Wilson told the PA news agency: “I came up before this digital era. So what I did is I produced my own plays and I worked in a shopping centre and made 2,000 dollars and put that into my first production, and just put it on and employed my friends, and then that’s how I got noticed and that’s how I first got on TV.

“So I think, just try to make something. I know it’s hard when you’re starting out and you’re scraping money together, but that would be my best advice to get seen.”

Wilson also spoke candidly about being offered more serious acting roles since she lost a considerable amount of weight.

She said: “I kind of feel like transitioning into different kinds of roles and into more dramatic roles and it’s really awesome. Of course I’ll still be doing comedies as well!

“But I think it will kind of change the roles that people see me being cast in.”

Elsewhere on the red carpet, director Edgar Wright shared his advice with aspiring filmmakers, telling them to “be sincere in what you’re making”.

The 94th Academy Awards – Vanity Fair Party – Los Angeles
Rebel Wilson also spoke about the new opportunities she is being offered since her weight loss (Doug Peters/PA)

The 48-year-old, best known for his work on the so-called Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy – Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End – told PA: “Be sincere in what you’re making. I always think it’s a good idea to make a movie that you want to see, not the movie you think you ought to make.

“It’s always just about risk taking really, and that’s not down to the filmmakers, it’s more down to the people who make the movie to take a chance on new voices, that’s always the thing.

“When I made Shaun Of The Dead we had been turned down by a lot of companies, and we were very, very fortunate that one person takes a chance on you.

“So you’re aware of what a kind of slim chance of success there is. So I feel forever grateful that person took a chance on me. So then, I think within the industry, it’s about taking a chance on new talent coming through.”

BFI Chair’s Dinner
Edgar Wright also shared his advice with aspiring filmmakers (Suzan Moore/PA)

He added that he would “definitely” like to reunite with the stars of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy – Simon Pegg and Nick Frost – on a new project if they “found the right thing”.

During the gala, Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton presented the inaugural BFI and Chanel Filmmaker Award to four emerging talents within the film industry.

The filmmakers – Baff Akoto, Kathryn Ferguson, Sam Firth and Erfan Saadati – were awarded a prize of £20,000 each for their “creative audacity” and their ambition to “explore a new dynamic to their practice”.

Ferguson has created a documentary film, titled Nothing Compares, telling the story of Irish singer Sinead O’Connor’s rise to fame and later downfall.

Reflecting on why she wanted to explore O’Connor’s story, she told PA: “I just think so many incredible women, especially ones that have put their head above the parapet and actually spoken have been written off in awful ways, and I’m very interested in female revisionist histories.”

Firth, who has awarded for her film The Wolf Suit, added: “I think the film industry could take a lot more risks in terms of, I guess, trusting filmmakers to take some money and do something with it without necessarily always having that blueprint of what it is.

“I know it’s difficult, because it’s often a lot of money. But I do think that’s something that particularly hampers women filmmakers and filmmakers from different social backgrounds, that there’s almost less likely to be that trust.

“I think there needs to be more disruptors and more people shaking things up.”