Matt Smith reveals he was threatened with a gun and a “Crocodile Dundee” knife while filming The Crown in Cape Town

Smith and an actor friend were accosted while drinking in a “rough” bar in the city

Published: Sunday, 4 December 2016 at 6:44 am

Matt Smith was involved in quite the royal hold-up when filming The Crown in Cape Town, South Africa, he has revealed.

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The actor – who portrays Prince Philip in Netflix’s most expensive series to date – said that a man “pulled a gun” on him and threatened to shoot him, as well as taking out a knife.

“We went to South Africa and a guy pulled a gun on me,” the 34-year-old told MR PORTER. Smith explained that while drinking in a bar, “This guy came up to us and said, ‘What are you looking at?’ We were drunk. We said, ‘Nothing, mate. No worries.’ He was like, ‘I'll f***ing shoot you, bru!’ He had a gun!

“Really stupidly, we just went to the bar across the street. I don't know why we didn’t just leave altogether. He came up to the window, and went [tap, tap, tap], no word of a lie, he had a Crocodile Dundee knife in his hand. A bouncer came up and was like, ‘Get out of here!’”

The incident is Smith's second brush with danger after his horse bolted down a ravine, also in South Africa while filming The Crown.

Smith also described a brief conversation he had with Prince William, Prince Philip’s grandson: “I met Prince William at an event and someone said, ‘Matt’s going to play Prince Philip.’ And I thought, ‘Oh God, no, no don’t say that. What’s he going to think? This is going to be awful.’ And he just went: ‘Legend.’”

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The Crown is available now on Netflix

Authors

Ellie HarrisonWriter, RadioTimes.com

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