Actress Emma Corrin truly embodied the late Princess Diana in the Netflix series, The Crown. As the show enters a new era, Elizabeth Debicki will now take on the role of the former Princess of Wales in the final two seasons of the drama series.
The Australian actress recently spoke with Entertainment Weekly and detailed what it was really like playing Diana in the series. Debicki shared that she’s been very “fortunate” to play the late princess in such a huge time of her life.
“It’s my hope that people feel that there’s an enormous evolution in her as the season progresses,” she told the publication. “For me, it’s a journey into a human finding a part of themselves that is profoundly strong—there's a piece that has survived so much and can flourish.”
The final season of the show will also tackle the tragic death of Diana in 1997. (She died in a fatal car crash alongside her boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed, while driving in the Pont D’Alma tunnel in Paris.) The decision to include that tragic event (and other sensitive subjects) in the narrative has come under scrutiny by royal fans and critics alike.
However, Debicki has addressed the concern and reassured fans that the show will handle the situation with respect and care. “Peter [the creator] and the entire crew of this job do their utmost to really handle everything with such sensitivity and truth and complexity, as do actors,” she said.
She added, “The amount of research and care and conversations and dialogue that happen over, from a viewer’s perspective, something probably that you would never ever notice is just immense. From that very first meeting [with] Peter, I knew that I’d entered into this space where this was taken seriously [in] a deeply caring way. So that's my experience of the show.”
See Elizabeth Debicki take on the role of Princess Diana in The Crown Season 5, which premieres on Netflix on November 9.
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