It seemed as if every star in the world had descended on LA last week for the Golden Globes. The biggest names in film and television rubbed shoulders, drank champagne and dined on an all-vegan menu. (A surprisingly tasty carrot soup, FYI.) And yet, in the clamour of the weekend, one woman proved to be firmly on the top of everyone’s must-meet list: Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
There was a sign of things to come on the Friday before the Globes – the first major ceremony of the season – at a separate event thrown by the American Film Institute. Phoebe was swamped by A-list admirers. Joaquin Phoenix – tipped for an Oscar for The Joker – appeared charmed. Laura Dern, currently the toast of Hollywood thanks to Little Women and Marriage Story, got close for a photograph. Brad Pitt was genuinely star-struck. And Mad Men actor Jon Hamm couldn’t resist interrupting Phoebe as she chatted with Succession actor Brian Cox.
A few days later, as Phoebe was honoured with two Golden Globes for the second series of Fleabag, she was hanging out with Dame Helen Mirren and last year’s Best Actor Oscar-winner Rami Malek. In short, Hollywood was entranced by Britain’s biggest cultural export.
Happily, she has kept close to her gang of British friends. She barely left the side of Fleabag co-star Sian Clifford, and still speaks regularly to Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer.
‘Phoebe’s an amazing friend,’ Jodie told Grazia at the BAFTA Tea Party thrown at the Four Seasons Hotel ahead of the Globes. ‘I love that we can share these experiences together – especially being out here in LA, as the two new kids on the block. I love LA, but it’s sprawling and can often be overwhelming, so it’s comforting having Phoebe here and being in the same boat.’ And Jodie revealed there is one key thing stopping them from moving there permanently. ‘We’ve both said we’re not sure we could ever live in LA because of the lack of pubs here,’ Jodie laughed.
Indeed,when Grazia spoke to Phoebe after her win, she was already planning her return to London. ‘I’m not letting go of this,’ she said at the Amazon after-party, clutching one of her awards. ‘I may even book it a seat on my flight back home and be really extra.
I can’t fucking believe it. I’m over the bloody moon.’ She can certainly afford an extra seat. Companies House records show that her 2017/2018 salary of £82,000 jumped to £518,000 the following tax year. And that’s before she landed the multimillion-pound Amazon deal for projects that are very much still under wraps.
Phoebe may not be set for a permanent move, but she will undoubtedly be spending more and more time stateside, thanks to that Amazon contract. Additionally, her partner of two years, Martin McDonagh, has his latest play, Hangmen, making its Broadway debut in February, and the couple are likely to make an appearance in its opening weeks. ‘They like their privacy and don’t love being photographed together,’ a source says of the pair, who met through friends. ‘But they are also hugely supportive of one another and their work, so they won’t let anything get in the way of being there for each other when it really matters.’
Jodie, of course, will spend increasing amounts of time in the US too. Promotional activity for her next film, Free Guy, has already begun, and she will be on hand again later in the year when historical drama The Last Duel begins its awards push. Still, Jodie insists, ‘I’m a Liverpool girl, through and through.’
And apart from pubs, it’s a sense of solidarity that Phoebe feels anchors herto the UK. Phoebe addressed her love of Britain in the winners’ room following her victories at the Golden Globes last week. ‘My favourite thing that happens is when I’m walking through London, in particular, and I walk past a woman, or a man occasionally, and I just get this look,’ she explained. ‘I know them and they know me. We are all Fleabags.’
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