Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Recreating moments in history has been an amazing experience
ELIZABETH Debicki has spoken movingly about how challenging but amazing it was to play Princess Diana in her final days in The Crown.
The Aussie star, 33, said she had tried to enjoy the happy moments of Diana’s life before the profound sadness of her sudden death.
Debicki reprises the incredible role for the final series of The Crown. The first four episodes are out on Netflix from November 16.
It covers Diana’s brief but blossoming romance with playboy Dodi Fayed, played by Khalid Abdalla, and their horrific deaths in a car crash in a Parisian tunnel.
Days earlier Diana was relaxing on holiday, with her sons, on a yacht off the South of France.
Debicki recalled: “We were in a really beautiful part of the world, so I constantly let that just wash over me. To try and relax.
“I know what’s to come, which was very demanding. I’m carrying this very profound sadness in me while I was shooting that.
“So, when I wasn’t doing that I let myself be very happy.”
The couple are seen being chased by paparazzi but the action stops as their car drives into the darkness of the tunnel.
The star said: “It was difficult to recreate. It was heavy and very manic, and incredibly invasive.”
And being pursued, even if it was for a drama, felt all too real for Debicki and did not require much acting. She said: “You only have to be in that situation for a minute, before you realise it is completely unbearable. You feel very trapped. It’s a really unpleasant experience.
“It’s really horrendous to have that many people yelling at you and wanting something.”
Debicki was just seven when Diana and Dodi, who had been in
People say Diana was luminous. We aim to show that ELIZABETH DEBICKI ON PORTRAYAL OF PRINCESS
a relationship for just six weeks, died but knows the heart-breaking scenes will bring back painful memories for many viewers.
She said: “I have a very distinct memory of watching the funeral as a kid and seeing the two princes, as I think everybody does. I didn’t really understand what was going on. My mother was devastated.”
“People talk about the loss they felt – it was really like an incredibly luminous being was lost.
“I think trying to create that has been really an amazing experience. So, I guess I’ll miss that light.”
The star, who splits her time between the UK and US, said her favourite scenes were with her screen sons.
William was played by Rufus Kampa then Ed Mcvey, and Harry by Fflyn Edwards then Luther Ford. She said: “They’re really beautiful kids. They’re very smart, much smarter than me, and funny and very kind. I just desperately wanted them to love me.”
Debicki has a fabulous wardrobe for the role but she particularly loved wearing a turquoise one-piece swimsuit specially made for her, which she wears sitting on a diving board. “There was just something about that swimsuit and recreating that moment that felt very sacred, and it was very important we got it right.”
For the yacht scenes, she tried to imagine how
Diana would have felt, in the aftermath of her divorce.
“Because we know where the story is going, it felt important to make sure that there was real joy and happiness and lightness and genuine fun on the screen.”
She appreciated just how cut off Diana was from the royals and her former life, following her divorce from Charles.
She said: “I think there was a huge amount of distance that had been very quickly put between her and them, and I don’t know whose doing that was.”
Debicki said the series is “a combination of memory and real deep sadness and grief, and something that’s still very alive because obviously the family and the legacy continue to unfold in front of us. It’s very complicated”.
The Crown season six, part one, streams on Netflix on November 16. The final six episodes will be released next month.