Celia Imrie: George Lucas Told Me Off for Lipstick, and the Camera Is Like a Lover

British actress Celia Imrie looked back on several stages of her career in The Guardian's reader Q&A series, covering her appearance on the TV show The Celebrity Traitors, a role in a Star Wars film, and work on well-known comedies and dramas.

Reality TV and acting technique

Imrie was a contestant in the first series of the BBC show The Celebrity Traitors in 2025. Watching it from a distance now, she says, she can see how contestants follow one another, while she always went her own way. She left the show after accusing fellow contestant Alan Carr near the end. She says she has rarely run into the other participants since.

She also took part in a 1987 BBC acting-for-film class led by actor Michael Caine, which has since become popular on YouTube. She remembers his advice: don't blink in a close-up, work out props the night before, and think of the camera as a lover who is ready to love you back.

Star Wars and Hollywood

In Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), Imrie played a fighter pilot called Bravo 5. She says the casting director saw her in the play The Hothouse, written by Harold Pinter, and picked her for the part. Imrie does not recall whether her character survived. Director George Lucas told her off for wearing lipstick, since she was the only female pilot.

She describes Hollywood as a place she adores. She spent five seasons on the series Better Things and says she would return at any moment.

Other roles

Imrie also discussed playing Claudia Bing, Edina's PR rival in Absolutely Fabulous, and Churchill's secretary opposite Albert Finney in The Gathering Storm. Her son, Angus Imrie, has played Josh Archer in the radio drama The Archers since 2014, but she says she never listened to it. Asked about her motivation, she says she wants to keep challenging herself and avoid repeating the same work.