Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Fiona Shaw shared a touching reunion on Tuesday night as they joined John Krasinski at the premiere for IF in London.
The two actresses are long-standing friends, having worked together for many years on massive hit shows – Fleabag and Killing Eve.
Phoebe, 38, looked thrilled to see her ‘muse’ on the red carpet, while Fiona, 65, rushed over to hug her friend, with a look of pure delight on her face.
Phoebe looked sensational in a sophisticated yet daring ensemble, opting for a classic black pinstripe suit.
However, the Golden Globe winner added a racy element to her look with a sheer polka dot shirt that showed off her black bra underneath.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Fiona Shaw shared a touching reunion on Tuesday night as they joined John Krasinski at the premiere for IF in London
The two actresses are long-standing friends, having worked together for many years on massive hit shows – Fleabag and Killing Eve
While Fiona put on a glamorous display in a voluminous bright blue gown, featuring puff sleeves and adorned with a sequinned bow.
They posed with John, 44, who wrote, produced, and directed the animated film, while also starring as Bea’s dad.
The actor looked typically handsome in a pair of grey striped trousers and a black jumper layered over a simple white shirt.
Phoebe has previously named Fiona as her ‘muse’ after she saw Fiona star as the lead role in a production of Medea on Broadway, when Phoebe was 16 years old.
The Indiana Jones star said the performance ‘left an indelible mark on my soul and set a standard for performance that I’ve accepted will remain unmatched, yet always strived for’.
When writing the second series of her acclaimed show Fleabag, Phoebe created a role for Fiona as her counsellor, saying that every time she writes a line she hopes ‘that one day, when I put them all together, I might convince her to utter it’.
For Phoebe’s other incredibly successful TV show, Killing Eve, which she also wrote and produced, she sought Fiona out to play the leading role of Carolyn Martens, which saw her win a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress.
Speaking to The Times in 2021, Phoebe gushed: ‘I discovered that you must always meet your heroines as long as your heroine is Fiona Shaw.’
She went on: ‘There is more life in Fiona Shaw than there is in a galloping herd of gazelles.
‘You can walk away from a single conversation with Fiona feeling as though you have been in the presence of Aphrodite, your mother, your long-lost lover, a president you want to impress, your friend that always gets you into trouble, a poet, Mother Nature, someone who once had a martini with the devil and all the best bits of the British Library.
‘Being in conversation with Fiona gives you the feeling that you have been gifted something you are not sure you deserve.’
She added that she was ‘damn lucky’ to have met the Harry Potter star and added: ‘She’d squirm at me saying this, but it is a privilege. Professionally she is something of a muse.
‘Since working with her I have found myself writing for her on a whim; a line will come to me that I just know is for her and I’ll write it down under a note labelled “Fiona”.’
While Fiona has expressed her mutual admiration for Phoebe, telling the Big Issue in 2019 that she would ‘fantasise’ about being the star’s mother.
She admitted: ‘You just want some of her to rub off on you because she leaves gold dust in her wake.
‘Phoebe is a force. When you are in the same room you feel her vibrancy. She has light beaming out of her.
‘I don’t know her psyche, but there must be a deep seam of pain and sorrow, because you can’t write as well as she can without it.’