Cher was "terrified" of working on ‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’.
The 72-year-old singer plays Ruby, the mother of Meryl Streep’s character Donna Sheridan, in the musical sequel and she admitted she was wary about being a newcomer on the project as most of the cast already knew one another from working on the first film.
She said: "I was terrified because everyone had been together and my character wasn’t very liked, so I was nervous, but everyone was nice to me.
"Meryl was behind a piece of scenery watching me do my number and that made me feel good after the fact.
"It was hard to go on a set where you were a stranger to everyone.
"I knew some of the people, but to have such a ‘mean grandmother’ thing and then work your way into the story and be friends with everybody… but I felt really kind of loved and kind of a great grandmother."
Though Cher was a big fan of Abba – whose music soundtracks the movie – before she started work on the film, she hadn’t appreciated how "complicated" the tracks were until she started singing herself.
Speaking at a press conference in London alongside co-stars including Lily James and Amanda Seyfried, she told BANG Showbiz: "In America we knew the hit songs, but then when I heard Fernando I heard a different thing. I heard the acting of it and I didn’t realise the songs were so complicated and I didn’t realise how orchestrated and produced they were."
Meanwhile, Lily plays the younger version of Meryl’s character and admitted she watched the original movie "over and over again" to prepare for her role.
She said: "Donna Sheridan is the most unbelievably brilliant, extraordinary woman and Meryl Streep is also all those things and her Donna was everything, and I just tried to watch it and capture what Meryl did, of that fearless uninhibited woman.
"I watched the [first] film over and over again to get into her physicality, of how open she is to the world, to hope that my Donna could grow into that woman."
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again is released in UK cinemas on July 20.
Cher had movies nerves
