Comedian Amy Hoggart Dishes On The Royal Wedding
NPR
Saturday, May 19, 2018
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Amy Hoggart is a British-American comedian, who starred in Almost Royal as a royal lowlife touring the U.S. She speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about Saturday's royal wedding.
Transcript
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Prince Harry of Wales and Meghan Markle of Los Angeles have been married at St. George's Chapel. The prince is sixth in line to the British throne and served two tours of duty as a British Army pilot in Afghanistan. Meghan Markle, now Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Sussex, went to Northwestern and is a successful actress. They're both active in humanitarian work.
Amy Hoggart joins us now, the comedian and actress who starred in the series "Almost Royal" on BBC America and is a correspondent for "Full Frontal With Samantha Bee." Amy, thanks for being with us.
AMY HOGGART: Hi, Scott. Thanks for having me on.
SIMON: What did you notice? What did you like?
HOGGART: I actually really enjoyed it. I haven't watched a royal wedding before, but just from being British, I kind of feel like I've been watching this stuff my whole life. I watched it with Americans, and it was really funny to me that I found the whole thing quite modern and new for Britain, and they thought the whole thing was incredibly traditional and old-fashioned. So I think - yeah, we had very different takes on it.
SIMON: Meghan Markle walked down the aisle solo. Do we...
HOGGART: Yeah.
SIMON: ...Read the proper amount or too much significance into that?
HOGGART: I think we're looking for a lot of significance in actually an only hour-long ceremony, so we're going to pick up on the small things. But it seemed to me a mix of sort of a family situation and her feminism, so however you look at it, yeah. I thought it was cool and brave that she did that. But I also think that we'll probably overanalyze it.
SIMON: You know, Amy, I don't know if you've seen "The Crown," but the last time a member of the British royal family married an American...
HOGGART: (Laughter) Yeah.
SIMON: ...Divorcee, there was an abdication, and a world war followed.
HOGGART: Yeah.
SIMON: Are you worried about any of that now?
HOGGART: I'm not too worried. I think that Britain has changed quite a lot, so I think we're less struck by the fact that she's been divorced and that she's American. As far as I can tell, Meghan Markle doesn't have Nazi sympathies, and as long as that remains the case, I think we're all OK.
SIMON: Yeah. There were, seeing it from a distance, a pronounced number of what we might think of as untraditional British faces visible there - African-Americans, that very energetic Bishop Curry who spoke...
HOGGART: Yeah.
SIMON: ...African-American and African-Anglo musicians who played, the choir that sang "Stand By Me."
HOGGART: Yes.
SIMON: It was a lovely contrast to so much else we could cite in life.
HOGGART: Yeah. For me that was the main takeaway was they had actually blended the different cultures really well. I felt like African-Americans were represented, also that people in Britain were represented as well. And I think that there's been a lot in the press about how it really, hopefully, is good for race relations. Like, the royal family is the whitest family on the planet, and they welcomed someone new in, and they've made a ceremony that reflects different cultures.
I felt, also, just watching it, if I was marrying a man, and the whole wedding was about him and his family, I'd probably be a bit annoyed, but actually Meghan got a lot of her own...
SIMON: Yeah.
HOGGART: ...Sort of tastes in there, I can presume. And there's a lot of attention on her mom as well. She was so hot. I was like, great stock.
SIMON: You know, I - and I guess we're expected to be cynical about this, but, you know, I'm not. These are two good people. They're doing good things in the world. It makes me smile.
HOGGART: They seem like the cool couple, and I feel like they haven't - I've been following on Twitter, and I haven't really seen any negativity yet. People have tried to dig up stuff on Meghan, and you can't. There's nothing out there. She seems like a really nice person...
SIMON: Yeah.
HOGGART: ...As Harry does.
SIMON: Amy Hoggart on the royal wedding. Thanks so much for being with us.
HOGGART: Thanks, Scott. Bye. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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