‘Citadel’ actor sounds off on making sexual Kate Middleton joke

Citadel actor Sen Monro, who delivered a now-infamous crude joke about Kate Middleton on an episode of the hit Amazon Prime show, has broken his silence following online furore over the line.

The show, starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden in lead roles, featured a scene last week where Madden’s character asks crime boss Balduino Basto (Monro) for help in breaking into the chief of armed forces’ office.

To this, Monro’s character replies: “The chief of armed forces? You might as well have asked me how to get between the legs of the Duchess of Cambridge!”

The line went viral soon after, garnering much negative press from royal enthusiasts who slammed the show for making the sexually crude joke about the Princess of Wales.

Breaking his silence over the backlash, Monro told Express UK: “Everyone is making a big hoo-ha about the line - it's meant to be derogatory, it's a metaphor.

Pointing how people are ‘vicariously getting upset on Kate’s behalf’, Monro added: “One of the things I had on social media was 'how dare you say the line? Yes, you're an actor. But you should have refused.’ I'm being directed by an Academy Award winner - what am I supposed to say?”

“I'm an actor there to do a job. At the end of the day, I'm an actor paid to portray a character and, if it's necessary for the character to say those lines, it's not for me to judge. It's for me to deliver, and I deliver what I'm paid to do,” Monro explained.

Monro further shared that he ‘didn’t think there’ll be such controversy’ as the episode that features the line came out three weeks ago, and added that he is now looking at the positive side of the attention.

“People are talking about me as an actor and it's nice to be in the spotlight for doing a good job,” the actor concluded.

Citadel, directed by the Russo brothers and produced by David Weil, focuses on two spies trying to stop a crime syndicate; it is already the top show on Amazon Prime in almost 200 countries.