Christine Baranski tells Stephen Colbert who hated dancing on Mamma Mia

When you’re watching the cinematic perfection that is Mamma Mia! or its glorious sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, it appears that everyone onscreen is having a better time than you or I could imagine.

But according to the sublime Christine Baranski, who plays the outstandingly glam Tanya “Does Your Mother Know” Chesham-Leigh in the films, the exuberant dancing required in both films was not everyone’s glass of prosecco. Specifically, the three male leads.

“I don’t think he’ll mind my saying this, but all three actors, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan [Skarsgård], they just hated having to do the dance stuff,” Baranski told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show on Wednesday. “Pierce was game, he would skip down the hill multiple times doing ‘Dancing Queen.’ This was James Bond and he’s dancing, ‘Yooou can daaance.’ I think Colin Firth meant all of his moves ironically.

“But Stellan hated it. We finally went down the hill in ‘Dancing Queen’ and landed on the dock. It was the end of the number, and the camera would move around, and it would usually avoid Stellan. But then finally, Ol Parker, this wonderful, dear director, he said, ‘OK, it’s time for your close up. You have got to do the moves now.’ And he let out with a string of expletives. It’s as though Ol had asked him to do Arabic poetry while jumping rope.”