Home Secretary Amber Rudd: I worked on Four Weddings and a Funeral as an 'aristocracy coordinator'

Amber Rudd (Getty)

Amber Rudd has revealed that she worked as an “aristocracy coordinator” on hit British film Four Weddings and a Funeral because the filmmakers could not afford to pay extras.

The Home Secretary said a “friend of a friend” asked her to arrange for people in “smart wedding outfits” to appear in the background during the wedding scenes of the movie, which stars Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell.

She also revealed that when the film took off in the United States, she had to bargain for she and the extras to keep their seats at the UK premiere, describing it as her “first negotiation”.

Speaking at a Times Red Box fringe event at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Ms Rudd said: “We all have certain political hinterlands certainly and that was a particularly unusual proposal I got when I was on maternity leave at the time, it was 23 years ago.

“And a friend of a friend called up and said 'we're making a small British film and we can't afford to pay extras and what we need is some people in some smart wedding outfits hanging out at weddings'.

“I think I was about the fourth or fifth person they asked so I said 'how much will you pay these people?'

“And bearing in mind this was 23 years ago, he said to me 'we'll pay them £100 a day'.

“I said well, no problem.

“So it worked out that if you wanted to put on a smart frock or wedding outfit of some form and call a number, (I) could arrange for you to have £100 a day to hang out in the background of a small British film, that's what I did.”

She added: “They made up that particular title (aristocracy coordinator) - not ideal for someone who went into politics I have to say.”

Press Association.