EMMA CORRIN IS FEAR LESS.
Playing one of the most recognisable figures in the world as their first major role? Check. Leading a stage version of a seminal, centuries-spanning story, with a gender-fluid protagonist light-years ahead of their time? No problem. Throwing themself into enormous productions led by radical filmmakers, set in universes they’ve never explored before? You got it.
Back in 2019, their casting (Corrin is non-binary, and uses they/them pronouns) as young Diana Spencer in The Crown shot them into household-name territory.
A huge task to take on, they embodied the people’s princess, capturing her mannerisms, fragility and fierceness whilst always avoiding caricature. Since then, Corrin has been a standout in period dramas My Policeman and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, with intimate scenes in the latter seeing them pushing boundaries and embracing vulnerability. They subvert expectations in their roles as women challenging the societal norm, every performance a world away from the last.
Now, they’re turning their attention back to the present, playing hacker, author and true-crime-obsessed detective Darby Hart in The OA creators Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij’s new mystery drama series, FX’S A Murder At The End Of The World. Also starring Harris Dickinson and Clive Owen, the show sees a gang of disruptors in the fields of medicine, architecture and beyond invited to a retreat by a tech billionaire and his wife — but when one of them meets a sticky end, Darby sets out to uncover the truth. Even bigger things await after that, including an as-yet-unknown role in Robert Eggers’ take on classic horror Nosferatu,
and an MCU turn alongside Ryan Reynolds’ third-wall-breaking anti-hero in Deadpool 3.
Corrin has become reliably unpredictable.
With this whole new set of challenges ahead, Empire sits down with Corrin to dig into the details of their unconventional acting process, their ever-growing list of visionary collaborators, and their willingness to deal with discomfort.
What was it that excited you about
A Murder At The End Of The World?
I remember getting the scripts and tearing through them. Sometimes that doesn’t happen. I thought it had some of the best cliffhangers and twists in a murdermystery series that I’d read before. All the characters are so beautifully and refreshingly three-dimensional — especially having a female sleuth who’s young, who’s Gen Z, who’s still strange and unique in a compelling way, but is relatable and vulnerable. She does feel fear and confusion, and she has flaws. She’s not one of these detectives who are hardy and invincible. I think [show creators] Brit and Zal did something really clever there.
What was it about their worldview that appealed to you?
I think they’re incredibly original. I almost feel like between them, they possess this second sight. It’s kind of spooky. They are both a bit psychic in the way that they can feel things around them in the world, put pen to paper and capture something that’s in the ether, and almost predict it. To think they were writing this maybe five years ago… it’s so ahead of its time, and covers so much of what we’re dealing with now in terms of our existential dread and a world where technology plays a major part of our lives.
AI is such a big part of it. Did it feel like you were predicting the future while making it?
A little bit while making it, but also now. In the past 12 months since we shot it, we keep texting each other being like, “Can you believe it?” I’m like, “Guys, you were writing this, like, four or five years ago. How did you know?” Really, it’s really insane.
You shot some of the show in Iceland. How did being in that environment feed into your performance?
The locations were so extreme. The first month of the shoot was in Iceland, in the mountains. Our first day was in a snowstorm on a frozen lake. We got snowmobiles to set. It was extraordinary. I’m not good in the cold. I’ll be straight up, I’m an absolute wimp. My lips immediately go purple, I have really bad circulation, it’s terrible. Also, I was doing an American accent, and my mouth was so cold that at points I couldn’t move my lips. I was thinking, “Christ, we’re going to have to ADR all of this.”
Then we went to New Jersey and shot all the interiors. For those few months in New Jersey, going into these stages every day, which are typically quite dark, you really felt like you were living in that hotel, trapped in there — which is a lot of the feeling Darby has. In this dark stage filming this murder, it was heavy. I think we all found it heavy. And that does seep into you.
This show is different for you, as most of your screen projects so far have been period pieces. What is it that you like about stories set in the past?
I’m quite nerdy. I like researching and learning about different periods in time. It was on my radar that I’ve done a few period ones, so wanted to switch it up a bit. But… it’s really interesting to explore a time very different to our own, especially given the times we’re in, which are so fractious at the moment. I feel like a lot of people are looking back in history and seeing how people did things then, and what lessons we have and haven’t learned from that.
Princess Diana is an apt one to discuss there. Playing her in The Crown was
such a huge breakthrough for you. Can you put your finger on what your connection was to Diana? And do you think that has impacted your performances since then?
With anything that’s biopic-adjacent, it really gets the nerdy side of my brain going, because there’s so much research, you can really dive into this person. But also, at the same time, I really love that what The Crown does is leave room for the actor to create their own version of that person. I think there’s a really beautiful synergy there between the old and the new. What that job taught me most of all was being on a set of that scale, and all the minutiae that comes with managing that life day to day when you’re playing a leading role. I think that that coming very early on in my career was very much, “You’re in the sea, no arm-bands, swim for your life.” But it also taught me a huge amount. I’m really grateful for that role in particular because what a fantastic role to get your teeth into, and also what it meant for my career, but also it taught me a lot about working.
You starred in the stage version of Orlando last winter. How did it feel to be playing that character? [The lead is a gender-fluid person who lives for hundreds of years, and wakes up one day as a different sex.]
Euphoric. Complete euphoria, I think, every night. It was really, really special for me to be on the stage again. To go out and tell that story every night, and to know that you’re reaffirming so many things for so many people in the audience who felt similarly about themselves in the many ways that Orlando covers.
Was the original film, directed by Sally Potter in 1992, significant to you?
I just remember it being a total masterpiece.
And the book is so ahead of its time, it’s almost unbelievable that [Virginia Woolf ] wrote that when she did. Reading it now, it feels like we’re still not quite there in fully understanding and embracing what she was writing about. I loved it.
Tilda Swinton starred in the film version, and she’s an actor that’s played with the themes of Orlando, gender presentation and androgyny a lot in her work. Is she an influence for you? Have you ever met?
Absolutely. If I can be anywhere near half or a quarter of what Tilda Swinton is in her life, it would be incredible. She has a huge presence. She works with such fascinating people, and I think that’s really remarkable, because it’s hard to stick by your guns and wait for the right thing to come and do it, and act with such brilliant perfection, as she does. I really admire her. But no, we’ve never met. I was actually at Glastonbury recently, and I passed her, but I got too scared. She’s just such a hero.
Are there other actors or filmmakers who you really look up to?
So many. I actually had the huge honour of working with two of them recently — I just came back from shooting Nosferatu with Robert Eggers and Willem Dafoe, and that was a real double whammy. I think Rob is an absolute genius, and one of the most brilliant filmmakers working today. He loves building very, very intricate worlds. I’ve learned more on that job with him than I have for a while, about myself as an actor. He has his vision, this way of working, and you adhere to that. It means that you go entirely out of your comfort zone, but while feeling really supported. You’re acting in a way you’ve never acted before, and it’s really remarkable. It makes me eager to work with more filmmakers like that, who are real auteurs. Working with Willem was amazing as well — he’s been a hero of mine for so long.
Robert Eggers has a reputation for really intense shoots, and it sounds like Nosferatu was no different. How did it feel to throw yourself into a production as big and physical as that?
Incredible. Very immersive. I felt like I was absorbing so much all the time, like a sponge. I found the attention to detail fascinating. I really loved it. Even when, at one point, I was covered in 20 rats. That felt immersive! Twenty rats on my naked chest. That was intense, I’ve got to say. And I can manage a lot. I’m quite good at dissociating, just
being, like, “La la la!” [laughs]. But that was really stressful for me.
You have Deadpool 3 coming up, which feels like a really exciting, different kind of project for you. How did that come about?
Shawn Levy, the director, came to see
Orlando. I’d heard about the project but, classic Marvel, they couldn’t tell me anything about it. Absolutely nothing. Zilch. So I met him being like, “I don’t know what this is about.” And, hands up, I’m not a Marvel person. I’ve watched Spider-man and Black Panther. I was like, “Look, you’re gonna have to debrief me into this.” It’s such an intricate world. There’s so much to it, it’s an absolute mind-fuck. All the language and the Easter eggs, and this person is related to that person who did this, and this person came back and this person’s dead… it’s amazing. I really understand why it means as much as it does to so many people. It’s a phenomenon and I feel really lucky to be part of it. Especially
Deadpool, because I love the fact that it’s self-aware, and critical of its own innerworkings. And I feel really excited to play a villain. I haven’t done that, and it’s an itch I want to scratch.
You’ve written a screenplay. Is that still in development?
It is. I’ve written it with my friend and collaborator, Avigail [Tlalim]. We wrote it during lockdown. That is cooking. It’s moving, just slowly. It’s such a rude awakening, almost, being on the other side of the process, producing something. Things move at an absolute snail’s pace, you know? It’s a miracle anything is made, especially with the industry where it is now. It’s scary.
In all of your projects, you seem to elevate your characters in a way that always allows yourself to shine through. I hope that’s a good thing!
It really is! You bring such a groundedness and a charm to these people that could be otherwise hard to connect to. Is that something you’re conscious of ?
Not really. But I’ve been thinking about it recently because I’m really fascinated by process. The more I work, the more I realise it’s totally different for every role you do. But it’s funny, I was doing an interview with Harris Dickinson recently, and we were talking about it, and he said, “Emma, I think you’re really reckless.” And I was like, “I’m sorry?” He said, “You turn up and you’ve read the script, you’ve done whatever work you want to do, but you do just rock up, and you’re very spontaneous.” I think I just tackle it head on.
Your characters often feel repressed or restrained in some way, usually by the societal pressures around them. Is there a catharsis in playing those kinds of outsiders?
I think it is a catharsis. I also really enjoy complexity. I enjoy tightrope-walking on that line, that beautiful line between vulnerability and strength. There’s such a fun, tasty overlap there for me. Connie in Lady Chatterley’s Lover [an unhappily married aristocrat who has an affair with a gamekeeper] is a really good example of that. There’s a huge vulnerability there, but there is such fire. That’s really fun.
A MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD IS ON DISNEY+ FROM