Joanna Lumley on meeting Donald Trump: ‘He wanted to have a look at me – it was the most bizarre thing’

Strange encounter: Joanna Lumley had an odd meeting with Donald Trump
Samir Hussein/Getty Images for Advertising Week Europe
Jennifer Ruby27 June 2016
The Weekender

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Joanna Lumley has recalled a ‘bizarre’ encounter with Presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The Absolutely Fabulous actress claims that she was asked to meet the businessman in character as Patsy Stone after the first series of the show aired.

She told the Hollywood Reporter: “This was years ago, this must have been in the first series when Patsy admitted that she admired Ivana Trump.

“Donald Trump heard of this, although he’d never heard of the show, never heard of us, but at a party thrown for him it was decided that I should be brought along so he could have a look at the person who admired Ivana, to whom he was no longer married.

“He’d now married Marla, but he wanted to have a look at me. It was the most bizarre thing.”

Lumley revealed that she did, in fact, go along to the party but couldn’t face actually meeting Trump in character.

“Well I put on some high heels, red lipstick and put my hair up,” she said.

“I went "Hello, Mr. Trump." But I couldn’t do it as Patsy because he didn’t know who Patsy was.

“So I just did my gushing Joanna “hello." It was a shocking moment.”

Daniel Radcliffe recently revealed that he had a bizarre run-in with Trump after the first Harry Potter film was released.

Absolutely Fabulous: Evening Standard photo shoot with Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley

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Reminiscing about the odd meeting on Late Night with Seth Meyers, the British star said that he had asked spoken to Trump backstage ahead of an appearance on The Today Show.

“It was my first time in New York,” he said. “I was really nervous, 11-years-old, had never been on live TV before and was terrified.

“[Trump] was a guest on it, and presumably somebody went up to him and was like, 'you wanna meet the kid that plays Harry Potter?' … I remember having some idea of who he was but not really a full concept.”

After explaining to Trump that he was nervous and asking for advice, he apparently told Radcliffe: “You just tell them you met Mr Trump.”

“To this day, I can’t even imagine that level of confidence,” Radcliffe added.

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