Guy Pewsey, celebrity director
With a teen in a tiara…
‘I interviewed Erin Doherty – Princess Anne in the new series of The Crown – after bingewatching all 10 episodes in one go. Brace yourself for a complete treat.’
you’re going to want to close the curtains, turn off your phone, and curl up on the sofa for hours. Sunday signals the return of a cultural phenomenon as The Crown’s third series arrives on Netflix. Gone is Claire Foy as the unflinching Elizabeth II. It’s farewell to Matt Smith’s Prince Phillip and Vanessa Kirby’s Princess Margaret. Instead, Olivia Colman takes up the tiara, with Tobias Menzies and Helena Bonham Carter completing the holy trinity. But, as the narrative hurtles through the ’60s and ’70s, it is the young royals who grab the attention. Josh O’connor, handsome and jug-eared, seems born to play Prince Charles (Camilla appears at the end of this series, but we have to wait for series four to meet Diana). And Erin Doherty, a relative newcomer, is utterly winning as Anne, a teenage princess fighting within her gilded cage.
‘When I found out I’d got the role, I got an Indian takeaway as my little celebration,’ Erin tells Grazia. ‘That’s the way to celebrate: with naan.’ It is a down-to-earth reaction from an actor who, thus far, has mixed theatre work with TV roles in Call The Midwife and last year’s Les Miserables.
She has had to get used to the A-list pretty quickly, though. ‘I have to prep myself, every day, depending on who I’m going to be working with, to just try and be normal,’ she says with a smile. ‘I try to think, “OK, so Olivia had breakfast this morning, she had a cup of tea, she put a dressing gown on.” I have to do this, because otherwise she’s Olivia Colman: Oscar winner. I can’t do that. I know she wants to be treated normally, and that’s all I want to do, but I have to get my fan-girling out of the way.’
Olivia, who won an Oscar for The Favourite earlier this year, is nevertheless a world away from the average Hollywood diva. ‘She takes it all in her stride, like a duck to water,’ says Erin, ‘and is just the nicest, normal human.’
Of course, the spectre of the previous cast was there from the get-go, which was useful for the new cast in terms of perfecting that particularly plummy accent. ‘I had binged the first two series, so I was really aware of what Claire Foy had to do,’ she explains. ‘I knew I had to get it right.’
Now, Princess Anne is just one year shy of 70, a cornerstone of the modern royal family and one of its most hard-working members. Last year alone, she undertook 518 engagements. But her teenage wardrobe tells the story of a child of the
’60s: an energetic burst of huge hair and knee-high boots. ‘When she wanted to, she would rock a miniskirt,’ Erin says. ‘She’s got the best sense of style. It was her way of expressing herself. You’ve got this royal family, and you’ve got this teenager in the middle of it asking, “Why do we do all of this?”’ Erin explains. ‘It’s amazing to have someone vocalise that stuff, because I completely relate to it. That’s what we find fascinating about them. We want to know what they talked about at the kitchen table. You can use Anne for that in the script. [Writer] Peter Morgan has done that: he’s used her to say, “These people are normal.”’
In some ways, yes. In others, less so. Especially Charles, who in series three is a young man with an enormous pressure on his shoulders, helped along the way by his supportive, if teasing, little sister. ‘You’re kind of unfulfilled in a way [as a member of the royal family],’ says Erin. ‘You’re just waiting for your mum to pass away. Which is so strange. I have so much sympathy for the royals off the back of the show.’
We may never know if Princess Anne will tune in, though. There are unconfirmed rumours that royal aides advise unofficially, but who knows if the Queen subscribes to Netflix. Still, Erin wants to do her subject proud. ‘I’ve a soft spot for her now,’ she says. ‘Ultimately, I want her to think, “I’m happy with that.” I really do think we do her justice. I hope so.’
As for being shot into the spotlight on a global scale by The Crown juggernaut, she’s relaxed. ‘It’s important to keep doing you, regardless of all these insane whirlwinds going on around you,’ she says. ‘I’m going to have a great time.’ Olivia’s example has, hopefully, taught her something. ‘You could get so anxious about the crazy ride that this may take you on, but seeing someone like Olivia just ride it, as cool as a cucumber, makes you think: I need to be that cucumber. I’m channelling my cucumber.’ ‘The Crown’ launches on Netflix this Sunday