Phoebe Waller-Bridge dishes on viral Emmy photo, the darker, ruder 'Fleabag: Live' with Stephen Colbert
Phoebe Waller-Bridge joined 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' on April 16 from her London home where she is staying with her younger sister. The actress, writer and producer got candid about how she was spending her time at home. She said she has been playing around with her inner chef a lot during quarantine and what started as experimental cooking has now turned out to be a full-blown romance with the craft and added that she now enjoys her time in the kitchen.
She also spoke about a quirky code language that she and her sister have come up with. For instance, "lemon" means get out and "pear" means okay.
Phoebe and Stephen also took a walk down memory lane when the latter had presented her with the award for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series for her show 'Fleabag'. Phoebe said she had never imagined something like that and "it was a night dreams are made of". She added that when she looks back at that night, it all becomes "one mushed up memory", one that she will never forget.
Stephen took this opportunity to make a confession. He said he had not watched the show when Phoebe appeared on his talk show for the first time. He later joked that he was "angry" and "furious" about how brilliantly Phoebe has created the show.
Colbert reminisced how after the Emmy he had bragged to his staff about the peck Phoebe had planted on his cheek after collecting the award. He said, "I felt like I won the Emmys that night." Colbert wanted to walk over to Phoebe to say hello while they were at Chateau Marmont, the same place where Phoebe's viral photo was created. The beautiful photograph shows Phoebe lounging at Chateau Marmont in her gown with a gimlet in one hand and a cigarette in the other and her Emmys on both sides. She mentioned that she was there with a couple of her friends and one of them took the photo and posted it on social media and that is where "it just went mad".
Recalling that night, Stephen said that soon after saying hello to Phoebe, "at the exact same moment" someone came up to him and started talking about his show and Stephen remembered exclaiming, "Not now!" By the time he could return to Phoebe, she had already "moved on to more glamorous fields", he said. Phoebe joked that the cheese toasties being passed around at the venue had her full attention.
Phoebe might be at home but she explained that she's doing everything in her capacity to help the theater community in the wake of all broadway shows been shut down until June due to the coronavirus outbreak.
"When all the theaters closed in the UK and I think around the same time in the US, me and the 'Fleabag' team started talking about how we could do something to help the theater community but also the wider community. Basically how we could just raise money. We had in our back pocket the National Theatre Live recording of the play," she said. She pointed out that the stage version of 'Fleabag' — 'Fleabag (NT Live)' — recording has never "ever been on TV and has never been able to be streamed or anything," though it has been played in a couple of cinemas.
She added that this one-off performance can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video in the US and Soho Theater in Canada for a minimum of $5 and all the proceeds will be donated to charities to support people working on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic. She also mentioned money raised will also be donated to Broadway Cares, a charity aimed to help the ones in need belonging to the theater community.
Speaking about the show, Phoebe mentioned its a 17-minute monologue titled 'Fleabag (NT Live)' and added that the difference between the TV show and the recording is that the latter is a little "darker, weirder and ruder".