Yes, she looks the part – but can she act it, too?
Newly released images of actress Emma Corrin playing Diana in the forthcoming Netflix series of The Crown had social media in a tailspin on Sunday, with fans “double-taking” at the verisimilitude of the stills.
In a replica of the late Princess of Wales’s wedding gown, the 24-year-old Brit was the “spitting image” of the young Diana, many marvelled, and “just her!”.
Corrin is a fantastic actress, and I’ll be tuning in along with everyone else on November 15. But with all the tools that make-up artists and costume designers now have at their disposal, I’m less impressed by mirror imagery than an actor’s capacity to bring that person to life.
Ashton Kutcher may have got Steve Jobs’s appearance, voice and mannerisms right, but it was Michael Fassbender – looking far less like the Apple founder – who nailed Jobs’s inner motivations.
We’ve started to prize mimicry over acting in recent years – and it’s worth remembering that the two things are not the same.