Elizabeth Debicki, who plays Princess Diana in Seasons 5 and 6 of Netflix’s The Crown, recently discussed how her memory of the Princess’ death informed her portrayal of the character on the show.
Debicki was a nine-year-old girl in Australia when Diana passed away in the tragically fatal Paris car crash in 1997. The actor revealed to Deadline on the red carpet for The Crown’s sixth season premiere that she carried that childhood memory with her as she recreated the Princess’ final days on the show, “I remember my mother’s reaction very, very strongly; I remember sitting on the floor of our living room, and my mother was watching the funeral procession, and she was weeping,” she said.
“I didn’t understand what was happening, and she explained who this person was. It’s actually quite a strong core memory, in a way, so I learned a lot, and I did a lot of research when I was approaching this role. I suppose knowing that this woman influenced my mother, a woman in Australia in the suburbs, so deeply is something that was already embedded into my understanding of the story,” Debicki explained.
The Crown’s Creator Explains Diana’s “Ghost” Scenes
The first four episodes of The Crown‘s upcoming season will feature the events leading to Diana’s demise. The Season 6 episodes will also deal with the immediate aftermath of her death in scenes that include the Queen and Prince Charles having visions in which they converse with the late Princess. Many are now referring to the scenes as featuring Diana’s ghost. The Crown’s creator, Peter Morgan, has another point of view, “The word ghosts is unhelpful. I was never writing anything from a supernatural perspective, not at all,” he said. “It was more an indication that, when someone has just passed, they’re still vivid in the minds of all those close to them and love them. And, sometimes, it’s impossible to keep them out of their minds. It felt more like an extension of her in real life rather than a ghost,” he explained.
Debicki echoed Morgan’s assessment, stating, “I’ve always been very intrigued by Peter’s brain, and I think that it’s an interesting, beautiful way to have a conversation about the experience of grief. I think that that is how we approached it as well. It’s such a slippery, human, crashing, impossible thing to reckon with, the loss of somebody, and I think that his way of imagining that was very beautiful to me, and it made sense.”
Netflix’s The Crown Season 6 will premiere on November 16, 2023.
Source: Deadline
