We all know that voice actors may never meet their co-stars, but if you were John Oliver, you’d at least hope you’d end up next to your co-star while shooting your film’s promotional materials, especially if your co-star is the only Beyoncé on the face of the planet. And while Beyoncé was clearly Photoshopped in with the rest of The Lion King cast (come on, you’re going to make Beyoncé stand around with these jerks?), the Last Week Tonight host did get to meet the space into which she would be placed after the fact, and that was more than enough for him.
“I remember Chiwetel [Ejiofor] was sitting in the front. He said, ‘You need to be careful where your foot is,’’’ Oliver told Stephen Colbert on Friday’s Late Show. “And I looked down and there was just this piece of tape on the floor with Beyoncé’s name written on it. It was like an electrical reaction, to go, ‘Oh shit!’ Just the future presence of Beyoncé was so intimidating.†Oliver joked about his expression in their cast photo, explaining, “What I’m doing is imagining that I am about to be put into a photo with Beyoncé one day, and that was nerve-wracking enough.â€