Scottish Daily Mail

That’s why she got the role of a lifetime

Emma Corrin’s the 23-year-old unknown actress who’s landed the part of Diana in The Crown. But as these startling pictures (and her impeccably upper-crust roots) reveal...

- by Barbara Davies

WHEN the makers of The Crown launched their search for a young actress to play the role of Princess Diana, they were very specific about the kind of qualities she would need.

The successful applicant, according to an advert widely circulated around drama schools, should be a ‘mesmerisin­g new young star with extraordin­ary range’ and ‘staggering­ly talented’.

She would need to be able to flirt and play the part of a ‘social exhibition­ist on the world stage’. The actress given the coveted role would also need to be able to portray the ‘psychologi­cal intensity’ of the tragic princess in darker times, as a ‘desperate and lonely self-harmer at her lowest ebb’.

On top of that, of course, she would need to bear more than a passing resemblanc­e to one of the most iconic women in history.

Step forward Emma Corrin, a 23-yearold unknown with only two minor screen acting credits to her name who, less than a year after sitting her finals at Cambridge University, is about to take on the role of a lifetime.

She is fresh-faced and blue-eyed — and as photos reveal — has the same kind of bashful, wholesome, animal-loving, girlnext-door type of beauty as Diana in her early years.

Corrin has been snapped up by The Crown’s producers for what has been, without a doubt, one of the most difficult roles they have had to fill since the critically-acclaimed drama launched in 2016.

THE show’s creator Peter Morgan wrote: ‘Emma is a brilliant talent who immediatel­y captivated us when she came in for the part of Diana Spencer. ‘As well has having the innocence and beauty of a young Diana, she also has, in abundance, the range and complexity to portray an extraordin­ary women who went from anonymous teenager to becoming the most iconic woman of her generation.’

The irony is that — in taking on the part of the young Lady Diana Spencer — Emma is likely to attract more attention than all of her more famous co-stars combined, mirroring the frenzied adulation Diana endured throughout her short life with the Royal Family.

For while the cast of the BAFTA-winning Netflix drama are inevitably compared and contrasted to their real-life royal alter-egos, the role of Diana is, without a doubt, the most controvers­ial of them all.

Born in December 1995, Emma is already older than Diana was when she married the Prince of Wales at St Paul’s Cathedral.

She wasn’t even out of nappies when the Princess was killed in a car crash in a Paris underpass in August 1997, and therefore has no living memories on which to draw.

To prepare for her role Emma will be required to study endless reels of news footage, television interviews and, when it comes to mastering that famous, instantly recognisab­le, lash-fluttering ‘Shy Di’ smile, poring over countless images of the most photograph­ed woman in the world.

She will play Lady Diana Spencer as she was in her early days, when she worked at the Young England kindergart­en in Pimlico, London.

It was there that Lady Di was famously snapped in the garden, her bare legs made ‘scandalous­ly’ visible by the sunlight shining through the flimsy fabric of her

skirt. Emma will also portray Diana throughout her engagement and ill-fated marriage to the Prince of Wales, who is being played by The Durrells star Josh O’Connor.

The Crown, when it returns for its third series later this year, takes up the story of the Queen’s reign from the mid-Sixties to the late Seventies.

Emma, however, will not appear until series four. To master the part, the actress will undoubtedl­y be required to dig deep into her thespian tool kit.

After all, her background, growing up in a stable, loving family home near Sevenoaks, Kent, couldn’t be more different from the tumultuous upbringing that was Diana’s.

First there was her parents’ acrimoniou­s divorce which left deep emotional wounds, then the illmatched marriage, aged just 20, to Charles, 13 years her senior.

As well as the torment of discoverin­g that her ‘Prince Charming’ had a mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles, Diana struggled with bulimia and depression while devoting herself to raising her two sons and maintainin­g the outward image of glamour and poise that ultimately made her the ‘People’s Princess’.

Emma, meanwhile, is the eldest of three siblings raised by businessma­n Chris Corrin and his South African wife, Dr Juliette Corrin, at the family home, a £2.5million detached house with a swimming pool in the village of Seal, outside Sevenoaks.

Her mother is a speech and language therapist who is considered to be one of the nation’s leading experts in working with babies and young children.

Emma and her younger brothers, 20-year-old Richard and Jonty, 17, have been educated privately at boarding schools in Surrey and Kent.

Her former school is £36,000-ayear Roman Catholic independen­t girls’ school in Woldingham, near Oxted, Surrey, and is also the alma mater of Great Gatsby star Carey Mulligan. After taking a gap year, during which she took a Shakespear­e course at LAMDA and worked as a volunteer teacher at a school in Knysna in South Africa, Emma went up to St John’s College, Cambridge, to study Education with English and Drama.

It was while there that her passion for drama really flourished. She was a keen and frequent performer at Cambridge University’s ADC theatre, the former stamping

ground of stars such as Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie as well as David Mitchell and Robert Webb. It was also where her Crown_ co-star, Olivia Colman, who is set to appear in season three of the drama as Queen Elizabeth II, took on some of her earliest roles. A spokesman for the theatre told the Mail that they were ‘so excited’ to hear about Emma’s casting.

‘The ADC theatre has a fantastic history of our alumni going on to illustriou­s careers and we are so proud to hear about one of our graduates going on to such an incredible and iconic role so soon after graduation. Emma was very active in the student theatre scene during her time at Cambridge and acted in an impressive range of roles, from Shakespear­e through to newly-devised plays. Emma is an immensely talented and striking actor and we are so proud to see her join fellow alumna, Olivia Colman, in the new series.’

When she was cast in The Crown, Emma had only two screen staging credits to her name. She appeared in a single episode of the fourth series of the 1950s ITV detective drama Grantchest­er earlier this year as well as in 2018 short film, Alex’s Dream. She is set to make her big screen debut in Misbehavio­ur, alongside Keeley Hawes and Keira Knightley, playing Miss South Africa Jillian Jessup in a film about the real-life plot to disrupt the 1970 Miss World pageant in London. Emma is also due to appear in upcoming U.S. drama series Pennyworth, which will tell the story of the early life of Alfred Pennyworth, legendary butler to Batman. But it is her role as Diana that is likely to make her a household name. The Crown has earned a reputation for pushing boundaries. Producers haven’t shied away from showing the Royal Family in a controvers­ial light, tackling alcoholism, infidelity, illicit sex and deception. Last month, a show insider claimed: ‘Peter is not going to hold back on how Diana impacted the Royal Family, just as he didn’t when he wrote The Queen. It could ruffle a few feathers.’ In a statement after producers announced their new signing, Emma said she would ‘strive to do her justice’, adding: ‘Princess Diana was an icon. ‘To explore her through Peter Morgan’s writing is the most exceptiona­l opportunit­y.’

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 ??  ?? Helping others: Diana visits landmine victims in Angola in 1997 and, above, Emma working as school volunteer in Knysna
Helping others: Diana visits landmine victims in Angola in 1997 and, above, Emma working as school volunteer in Knysna
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 ??  ?? Pensive pose: Diana and Emma show us their serious side
Pensive pose: Diana and Emma show us their serious side
 ??  ?? Pup stars: Diana and Emma with four-legged friends
Pup stars: Diana and Emma with four-legged friends
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 ?? Pictures: DAVE CHANCELLOR/ALPHA PRESS/GLOBE PHOTOS/ZUMAPRESS.COM ?? Coat of charms: Proving that beige is all the rage
Pictures: DAVE CHANCELLOR/ALPHA PRESS/GLOBE PHOTOS/ZUMAPRESS.COM Coat of charms: Proving that beige is all the rage
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and, above, Emma working as school volunteer in Knysna

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