Cinderella story of The Crown’s Kate
Social media casting call for ‘The Crown’ leads to two unknowns playing young royal couple
Meg Bellamy, a former Berkshire schoolgirl who worked at Legoland, will play the young Kate Middleton in the next series of The Crown. Bellamy was chosen for the Netflix drama, her first professional role, after sending in a self-taped audition for a casting call on social media. The series will portray the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s first meeting at St Andrews university
ONE day she was performing at Legoland and celebrating an A* in drama. The next, she is set to be propelled to stardom by playing one of the most famous women in the world to an audience of millions.
A former head girl has won her first professional acting role playing the young Kate Middleton, as a new generation take on the roles of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in The Crown.
She and an actor playing Prince William were both picked for the coveted Netflix roles after submitting self-taped auditions for a casting call put out on social media.
The couple now known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will appear in semi-fictionalised form in the Netflix drama, which will trace the young William through the most traumatic period of his life as a teenager to meeting his wife. Miss Middleton, who enters the series in its sixth season as a student at St Andrews University, will be played by Meg Bellamy,
The Daily Telegraph understands she won the role months after leaving her comprehensive school in Wokingham.
Meg Bellamy – known to friends and family as Meg Smith – was head girl of St Crispin’s School, where she studied drama, a subject she said gave her the “opportunity to learn about a wide range of plays, styles and practitioners”.
The young actress was a member of a choir and starred in school shows, and is understood to have worked as a performer at Legoland. The theme park employs performers to wear costumes of Lego characters and entertain guests.
She will star opposite Ed Mcvey, the second of two “Prince Williams” across the sixth series who will portray his later teen and early adult years.
According to Deadline magazine, which broke the news, he won the part with a CV including training at the Drama Centre London and work as an understudy in the play Camp Siegfried at the Old Vic in London.
His casting profile advertises his ability to perform a heightened RP “Queen’s English” accent. Mcvey will take over the role from teenager Rufus Kampa for episodes in the late 1990s.
Also a newcomer chosen to audition thanks to a home-made tape, Kampa has played the title role in Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ in the West End.
Previous series included A-list stars such as Helena Bonham Carter, Gillian Anderson and Charles Dance. It also starred relative unknowns, with Emma Corrin as Diana, Princess of Wales, and Erin Doherty as Princess Anne.
The Crown is to chart the latter stage of the life of Princess Diana, including her famous and now-discredited Panorama interview and scenes around her death in August 1997.
The series is likely to cause particular upset for friends and admirers of the Royal family, many of whom believe its treatment of real-life events while those involved are still alive has been unfair.
Scenes about his late mother’s interview with Martin Bashir will be distressing for the Duke of Cambridge, who has asked that the real interview not be aired again after revelations about how Diana, Princess of Wales, was deceived into taking part. A Netflix source said the series will reflect circumstances as they are now known.
Palace aides have previously moved to make it known that the royal household has had no part in the content of The Crown, with the Queen’s communications secretary calling it a “fictionalised interpretation of historical events”.
The Duke of Sussex, who has a commercial deal with Netflix to produce programmes including a documentary about the Invictus Games and a series the Duchess of Sussex described as telling their “love story”, has said of the drama: “It’s fictional, but it’s loosely based on the truth. Of course it’s not strictly accurate.”
The new actors begin filming later this year. The fifth season of The Crown is set to stream on Netflix in November, with four actors playing Princes William and Harry at different ages. Senan West, who portrays William in the final episode of the series, is the son of Dominic West, who plays the Prince of Wales.