Queen Tells THE AUDIENCE's Kristin Scott Thomas: It Will Be 'Quite a Challenge' to Play Me

Kristin Scott Thomas had a special meeting with Queen Elizabeth II this week when she was awarded the distiguished title of 'Dame'. The actress is set to portray the British royal beginning next month in the West End production of The Audience.

"[The queen] asked me what I was doing next, so I had to tell her and she said it would be quite a challenge," the 54-year-old actress told reporters as she displayed the medal she received at Buckingham Palace in recognition of her services to drama. Check out the first official photo of the actress in her upcoming role at left!

Kristin Scott Thomas will play the Queen in a new and updated version of Peter Morgan's The Audience.Stephen Daldry's production will preview at the Apollo Theatre from 21 April 2015, with press night on 5 May 2015 and is booking to 25 July 2015. The Audience has designs by Bob Crowley, with lighting by Rick Fisher, sound by Paul Arditti and music by Paul Englishby.

Joining Kristin Scott Thomas are David Calder as Winston Churchill, Mark Dexter as David Cameron and Tony Blair,Michael Gould as John Major, Gordon Kennedy as Gordon Brown, Sylvestra Le Touzel as Margaret Thatcher, David Robb as Anthony Eden and Nicholas Woodeson as Harold Wilson. David Peartplays the Equerry, Charlotte Moore will play Bobo MacDonald and Private Secretary, Marnie Brighton, Madeleine Jackson Smith and Izzy Meikle-Small will alternate in the role of Young Elizabeth and Matt Plumb and Harry Feltham will play the footmen.

For sixty years Elizabeth II has met each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace. Both parties have an unspoken agreement never to repeat what is said, not even to their spouses. The Audience imagines a series of pivotal meetings between the Downing Street incumbents and their Queen. From Churchill to Cameron, each Prime Minister uses these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional - sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive.

Multi award-wining theatre and film actor Kristin Scott Thomas was most recently seen on stage in the title role in Sophocles' Electra at the Old Vic. Previously she has been seen in the West End in Ian Rickson's productions of The Seagull, Betrayal and Old Times, Jonathan Kent's production of As You Desire Me and Michael Blakemore's production of Three Sisters, both for the Playhouse Theatre in London. Her extensive film credits include Suite Française, Sous Ton Emprise, Une Femme Parfaite and Nowhere Boy as well as Only God Forgives, Bel Ami, Salmon Fishing in Yemen, Easy Virtue, The Other Boleyn Girl, Gosford Park, The Horse Whisperer, The English Patient, Mission Impossible, Angels & Insects and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

The Audience received its world premiere in February 2013 at the Gielgud Theatre with Helen Mirren leading the cast. Mirren recreates the role on Broadway with performances continuing to June 2015.

Photo Credit: Jason Bell

Source: PEOPLE