‘I’d stand over the kitchen sink and say, ”I can’t do this”’: The Crown’s Elizabeth Debicki reveals she was ‘spooked’ at idea of playing Diana as she reflects on wearing ‘super risqué’ revenge dress
The Crown’s Elizabeth Debicki has revealed she was ‘spooked’ at the idea of playing Diana and used to tell herself – ‘I cannot do this’.
The actress, 32, has taken on the role of a lifetime with her part as the late Princess of Wales in the new series released on November 9.
But she has now told in a new interview with British Vogue how she was ‘overwhelmed’ with the prospect of taking on the character – as well as reflecting on recreating her ‘revenge dress’ scenes.
Doubts: The Crown’s Elizabeth Debicki has revealed she was ‘spooked’ at the idea of playing Diana and used to tell herself – ‘I cannot do this’
She told the publication: ‘I think in the very beginning that did overwhelm me, the idea of this kind of collective [of Diana disciples] out there.
‘It’s a trap, right? A swampy quagmire. So, I would stand over the kitchen sink and say, ‘I cannot do this.’
But then the scripts arrived and she realised: ‘This isn’t meta. These are characters.’
During the chat she also reflected on wearing Diana’s iconic black ‘revenge dress’ – which she says she felt was ‘super risqué’ for the time.
Interview: But she has now told in a new interview with British Vogue how she was ‘overwhelmed’ with the prospect of taking on the part
She explained: ‘It was pressure! It’s a complex dress. I let the fittings happen around me while I thought about what the dress meant. Why this dress? She’d had it for two or three years. It was super risqué at the time.
‘She was claiming the space. The way she walked out of that car, the luminosity, the strength of her as that car door opened, she was so fast and so forward. It’s an extraordinary thing to watch.
‘To decide what you’re saying about yourself through fashion… it was a currency. An incredibly powerful currency.’
Beauty: Elizabeth looked stunning in her Vogue shots as she donned a sexy black lace dress which she teamed with silky black gloves while posing up a storm
She also spoke about the attention the show receives – amid wide-spread criticism of the latest series and Netflix for covering the late royal’s final hours.
Touching on the headlines it has created, she said: ‘I don’t have any big opinions about the Royal Family. That’s an advantage here, right?’
‘Prince Harry seems fun. But anyone who works on the show has a sense of how extremely difficult it is to be born into that life.’
Elizabeth looked stunning in her Vogue shots, and on the cover wore a ruffled yellow dress, while sporting poker-straight blonde hair and a red lip.
Historic: During the chat she also reflected on wearing Diana’s iconic black ‘revenge dress’ – which she says she felt was ‘super risqué’ for the time
Moment: She explained: ‘It was pressure! It’s a complex dress. I let the fittings happen around me while I thought about what the dress meant. Why this dress? She’d had it for two or three years. It was super risqué at the time!’
Iconic: Diana wore the stunning black dress commissioned from Christina Stambolian, as she attended the Vanity Fair party at the Serpentine Gallery on November 20, 1994, in London
The other shot saw her don a sexy black lace dress which she teamed with silky black gloves as she posed up a storm.
The show facing criticism over storylines set to feature in the new series, including depicting the then Prince Charles as a disloyal schemer who plotted against his mother and Prince Philip ‘pursuing an affair’ with his close friend Penny Knatchbull.
William Shawcross, the Queen Mother’s official biographer, branded the series ‘odious’ and ‘deliberately hurtful’ over an apparently invented scene where Charles tells the Queen she should be ‘thrown… into jail’ for being a ‘bad mother’.
Netflix, which spends £11.5 million per episode on the show, which is one of its biggest global hits, is about to launch series five on November 9.
It will cover the years from 1991 to 1997, and will include details of Diana’s Panorama interview in 1995.
King Charles, played by Dominic West, is the dominant figure in the drama. He is shown lobbying Prime Minister John Major in a bizarre attempt to force his mother’s abdication.
It also depicts Charles bitterly arguing with Diana as their divorce looms, and romancing Camilla, now Queen Consort, including a dramatisation of the notorious ‘tampongate’ phone call.
The fifth series of The Crown, which will cover the years leading up to Princess Diana’s 1995 Panorama interview, has already sparked anger before its release.
Popular: Netflix, which spends £11.5 million per episode on the show, which is one of its biggest global hits, is about to launch series five on November 9
A production source said that media outrage over inaccuracies – and the lack of sensitivity in airing the series so close to the death of the Queen – is ‘spooking’ the broadcaster.
The source said: ‘The show has never been about sensationalism but it has also always been a drama. For the first years it seemed that everyone was happy to tolerate it.’
But the source said writer Peter Morgan had become increasingly ‘uncomfortable’ as the series of The Crown edged closer to the present day.
But Elizabeth has previously defended the series and said it was an ‘interpretation’ of events and ‘we can maybe stop talking’ about the controversy.
Criticism: Netflix is currently facing fury over plans to dramatise Princess Diana’s final moments before her tragic death in Paris in its new season of The Crown (Elizabeth as Princess Diana in The Crown, season five)
She told the Radio Times: ‘I respect people’s points of view and I, being an actor in the show, understand the nature of what the show is.
‘It was always very clear to me that one can never know what happens behind closed doors and that a writer is interpreting what may have happened.
‘Now the disclaimer is up there, we can maybe stop talking about it and move on. If that’s helpful for certain people, so be it, and now the conversation can be returned to the creative endeavour of what the show is.’
She added: ‘There’s a huge amount of room for interpretation and that’s the value and beauty of The Crown as well, that you receive a different message depending on who you are. That’s good drama to me.’
Acting royalty Dame Judi Dench, who is close to King Charles and Camilla, recently accused the programme of being ‘crude and hurtful’.
Amid growing controversy about the way The Crown blurs reality and fiction, Netflix recently updated its description of the series to add a disclaimer to its trailer on YouTube which says it is a ‘fictional dramatization’.
Series six will show moped-riding paparazzi photographers swarming Princess Diana‘s car in the lead-up to the crash that killed her in Paris. Netflix previously said the ‘exact moment’ of the crash will not feature in the controversial drama as filming for series six is well-underway.
The December issue of British Vogue is available via digital download and on newsstands from November 15.
Backlash: Amid growing controversy about the way The Crown blurs reality and fiction, Netflix recently updated its description of the series to add a disclaimer to its trailer on YouTube which says it is a ‘fictional dramatization’
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