British acting legend Celie Imrie, star of The Thursday Murder Club, has recalled the time she cameoed as a Naboo fighter pilot in Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, and got told off by director George Lucas for wearing lipstick.
Imrie, perhaps better known for her roles in a slew of other films such as the Bridget Jones series, Nanny McPhee and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, also appeared in the original Star Wars prequel. Keep a keen eye out and you’ll spot her in the movie’s final battle sequence, piloting a yellow Naboo starfighter with the call sign of Bravo Five.
“This is one of the most popular parts I can ever talk about,” Imrie said in a BAFTA interview, “especially in America and especially with young gentlemen, who can’t believe I was Bravo Five in Star Wars.”
“Extraordinarily, one day I was doing a very serious play with the great, late Harold Pinter, and the casting director [for Star Wars Episode 1] was sitting in the audience in the matinée,” Imrie recalled. “He took one look at me in my nightie and thought ‘she’d make a good Star Wars pilot’.”
Much of Star Wars Episode 1’s battle sequence was shot using green screen, something that does not seem to have helped Imrie’s understanding of what was actually going on during her relatively short time on set.
“As a Star Wars fighter pilot, I never knew who I shot, whether I won, or whether I came back to Earth in an aeroplane or not,” Imrie admitted. “I hadn’t got a clue what the plot was. My yellow aeroplane was on a stand so I was sort of, like one of those fairground ones, rocked around all over the place. I did a lot of diving in my goggles and everything, and looked very fierce. And I got told off by George Lucas for wearing lipstick. But seeing as I was the only lady pilot, I thought, why not?”
In the wider Star Wars universe, Imrie’s character has a full name — Dineé Ellberger — and happily is confirmed to have survived the events of the first film. Other details on Brave Five’s later life remain scarce, however.
Imrie is currently starring in Netflix hit The Thursday Murder Club alongside Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren and Ben Kingsley, in a role that requires a lot less green screen and no need for spacecraft goggles.
In other recent interviews, The Thursday Murder Club director Chris Columbus has said he was fired from 20th Century Fox’s original Fantastic Four movie after suggesting concept art should feel more like the Silver Age of Marvel, and ruled out any chance of Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson reuniting as their characters in the future.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
