Over the last several seasons of Netflix’s hit series The Crown, from creator and showrunner Peter Morgan, audiences have been able to watch the (albeit slightly fictionalized) struggles of the British Royal Family play out since Queen Elizabeth’s ascent to the throne began in the 1940s. For the most recent Season 5, an entirely new set of actors were cast to inhabit these famous roles — including Elizabeth Debicki, who assumes the part of Princess Diana from Emma Corrin (who played her in Season 4) and brings the equally winsome and thoroughly enigmatic member of the Royal Family to life on-screen. Debicki is also set to play Diana for The Crown's sixth and final season, which will depict the ultimately tragic fate of the Princess of Wales.
During an interview with Collider, Debicki spoke about joining The Crown for its fifth season and the advance research she did to prepare for the role — including reading Andrew Morton's bombshell biography. The actress also discussed her journey to taking up space as a taller woman in Hollywood, the lengths she went to in terms of mimicking Diana's body language and movement, what it was like to film that big Charles and Diana apartment scene in Episode 9, and more. You can watch the video above, or read the full transcript below. The Crown also stars Academy Award-winner Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Pryce, Lesley Manville, Dominic West, and Olivia Williams.
Collider: I feel like I have to just start this interview off by saying, from one tall queen to another, I fully appreciate the fact that there's another six-foot-plus woman out there representing.
ELIZABETH DEBICKI: I do what I can. It's taken me years to really own that space as well. It's not easy. Society really, really makes women feel that it's more usual for them to be smaller than take up space. It takes time to get there, but I do what I can.
There's so many things I want to talk about, but I know we only have a little bit of time. To start, you're cast in this role. You have Peter Morgan's fantastic scripts, but I'm wondering what outside research you did, apart from the scripts, as far as Diana's life is concerned. Did you read the Andrew Morton biography? What written research did you dive into while you were preparing to take this on?
DEBICKI: I definitely read Andrew's biography. I read a lot of different books. I watched a lot of things. I watched a lot of documentaries. There's so much available. I had time to do it as well, which was a huge luxury. I really swam through a lot of it. It's interesting. In terms of written archival things, I also found out quite quickly that I would start reading a book, and I was always really drawn to it because I was in that phase of prep where you just are gleaning all information and then seeing what sticks. But after a little while, into each book I read, I would pull up out of it, almost getting defensive about it, and realizing that there's always an angle and an agenda that the author has. So it was almost in the end, easier to read just basic, factual information and also watch footage.
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When it comes to your performance, one of the things that's really impactful is you grasp a lot of the little nuances that she had physically. It comes through watching this season. How much of your preparation involved studying her movement, her body language, and trying to emulate that? It really does feel like it's not an impression. There are scenes where it feels like you're embodying her in a way.
DEBICKI: Well, I did. I've watched an enormous amount. You know, instinctively, that that's a really important layer that you get right. Same as vocal work. We have a movement coach on The Crown. Her name's Polly Bennett. She's a genius. It's her job. To sit down with her, should we want to do that work with her, and really work through, watch things and speak about them, and understand why certain things are happening physically, rather than just going, "Oh, the character does this." Yeah. It was a huge layer of the process. I spent a lot of time thinking about it.
One of the things that struck me about watching the season is that you get the distinct sense of the difference between who Diana was in public and who she may have been in private. How did you try to distinguish those two sides from one another in your approach to playing her?
DEBICKI: Well, it comes down in a way to Peter's writing of her, because that distinction is very clear in the way he's written her. There's this public-facing version of this character. That's a face. That's a layer that has to be put on that's a degree of protection, but also a role that people expect of you, and a huge amount of pressure on that. Then obviously, if that's something that's being asked of a person, then they have to decompress. They have to take that off.
The thing underneath it, which is something that Peter wrote and something I really embraced as an actor, is that the thing underneath that is actually a very vulnerable thing. It's a very raw thing. We definitely see it with Emma, and then we see it through Season 5. It's something that's still forming because it's very difficult to grow into yourself naturally. I think when you are being observed from so many angles, it's so difficult because in order for that to happen, you need balance. You need privacy. You need all those things that should be human rights, in a way. People who are under the spotlight like that don't always have access to those things.
One scene that I really wanted to ask you about is the one in Episode 9, [where] Charles visits Diana in the apartment. The two are reflecting on their marriage now that it's officially over. The divorce has been finalized. It felt like a very intimate scene, almost like a play in a lot of ways. I'm wondering how many takes was that for you and Dominic to do? What was that like to film on the day? I'm just curious as to how all that came together.
DEBICKI: We actually shot it over three days. There's different sets involved in it. We moved through the sets. In a way, it was like doing a play. We got to rehearse it, which is a luxury when you do TV. It was nice. I'm a theater actor, really, by trade, so that's pretty comfortable for me, to have that time and space to think about it. We did quite a few takes, in a way. We had time to do it, so we used it. We pushed it in lots of different directions. We did lots of different variations of it and played around with versions of how it ... not with the writing, but the feeling of how it is affecting them or how it ends. Yeah.
That was a joy to do that because we didn't feel the constraints of time, which is something that affects you a lot when you're making TV. We really got to delve into it. It was a joy to do it with Dom because he's an amazing actor. We really both loved doing that scene because it's almost the only scene we get together. It was a real treat to come in and do that for a few days.
Looking ahead to the final season, was there anything that you wanted to approach differently in how you came to Diana? I know you're probably doing quite a bit more work with Khalid specifically. We see the seeds of that relationship that are sewn in Season 5, that is going to become very important in Season 6. So I don't know if there's anything you can tease for where the last season's going.
DEBICKI: No, I don't want to give anything away. We're still making it at the moment, so I'm just going to keep ... (She mimes closing her lips and throwing away the key.)
That's fair enough. I am all out of time and questions. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to sit and talk with me. It's been such a pleasure to watch you this season. I'm looking forward to seeing how this all wraps up next season as well. Thank you for your time.
DEBICKI: Thank you. Have a nice day.
The Crown Season 5 is now available to stream on Netflix, with a Season 6 premiere date yet to be announced.
