How Di was cast for The Crown’s Emma
Posh actress into causes like Diana
STROLLING through the leafy lanes of affluent north London, Emma Corrin blends in with the crowd.
But the days when the actress can walk her dog unnoticed may be numbered.
For next month, TV viewers will see the 24-year-old in her first leading role as Princess Diana in the long- awaited fourth series of The Crown.
Emma – whose dog is ironically called Spencer – won the chance of a lifetime in the £100million series less than a year after her university finals.
But, despite her dresseddown appearance, privatelyeducated Emma’s privileged lifestyle may have primed her for the part of Diana, with whom she shares some striking character traits.
PASSIONATE
Living in a £1million Victorian red brick apartment in one of the poshest parts of north London, a glance at Emma’s social media accounts shows she is a passionate advocate of many causes – much like the People’s Princess.
She supports Black Lives Matter, Aids awareness, Bone Cancer Awareness Week and a campaign to “Make white privilege and systematic racism a compulsory part of the British education course”.
Emma has also spoken about feminism and body image in the fashion industry.
Born in December 1995, she is the eldest of three children of businessman Chris Corrin and his South African wife, Dr Juliette Corrin – a top child speech therapist.
The family home is a £ 2.5mil lion detached house with a swimming pool in Kent.
Emma and her brothers Richard, 21, and Jonty, 18, were educated privately, with the actress attending Woldingham, a £ 36,000- a- year Roman Catholic girls’ school near Oxted in Surrey, where Great Gatsby star Carey Mulligan also went.
Emma was tapped to play Lady Di at the beginning of 2019 after more than n ine months of practice reads on set. She also researched the role using books about Diana and got to know what she was like through meetings with Patrick Jepson, her former private secretary.
After a gap year, during which she took a Shakespeare course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and worked as a volunteer teacher at a school in Knysna, South Africa, Emma went to St John’s College, Cambridge, to study education, English and drama.
And, like her new co- star Olivia Colman – who plays the Queen in The Crown – she threw herself into stage roles at Cambridge, where she appeared in 20 productions.
Her screen characters since then have included Miss South Africa in recent film Misbehaviour about the women’s lib plot to disrupt the 1970 Miss World contest.
She also appeared in US drama series Pennyworth, an episode of ITV’s Grantchester, and 2018 short film, Alex’s Dream.
But her role as Diana is likely to make Emma a household name.
She described it as “the most exceptional opportunity”, adding: “Princess Diana was an icon, and her effect on the world remains profound and inspiring. I will strive to do her justice.”
In her opening scene, Emma appears as an imp-like Diana, then 16. She beguiles Prince Charles whi le dressed in a green leotard as a woodland character from Midsummer Night’s Dream – a play she had been learning at school.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Diana was an icon... I will strive to do her justice
EMMA CORRIN ON WINNING ROLE OF DI
■ The fourth series of The Crown is out on Netflix on November 15.