The Crown’s Camilla: Why I won’t play her as a villain
WHEN the young Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles were pictured together after a polo match in the 1970s, the chemistry between them was plain to see.
Now Emerald Fennell – the actress who will recreate that moment in the upcoming new series of The Crown – has spoken of how she will portray Camilla simply as a ‘young woman in love’ rather than a ‘villain’.
Speaking at a Bafta event in Los Angeles, Ms Fennell said: ‘I hope that it feels true.
‘She was a young woman who fell in love with someone. And it’s a story I think that maybe hasn’t been told – the kind of story before his marriage. So I hope I have done a good job.’
The 1975 polo meeting was recreated for the new series of the Netflix drama, which co-stars Josh O’Connor as the Prince of Wales.
Once their relationship was revealed during Charles’s marriage to Diana, the famous photo was scrutinised for hints in body language and signs of a couple in love.
Ms Fennell insisted that the now Duchess of Cornwall should not be depicted as the ‘villain’ responsible for the breakdown of Charles’s marriage to Diana.
The Prince and the then Camilla Shand had begun dating several years earlier when they were both 23 after meeting at another polo match. Their relationship stalled, however ,when Charles was called away on naval duties, and by the time of the 1975 photograph, Camilla had married cavalry officer Andrew Parker Bowles.
Ms Fennell, 33, was revealed to be playing Camilla Shand in the series earlier this year. She has starred in Call The Midwife and recently took over from Phoebe Waller-Bridge as scriptwriter for the second series of Killing Eve.
She told The Sunday Telegraph she was nervous about how her performance in The Crown will be received, saying: ‘The great thing about the show is that it is history, but it’s [writer] Peter Morgan’s imagining of it. I think everyone understands it is fictionalised but also that everyone is a real person and they’re very careful to make sure that all the characters are so well rounded.
‘So anyone who watched it would think it was fair and brilliant and beautifully done... I hope.’