Everything Elizabeth Debicki Has Said About Playing Princess Diana on ‘The Crown’

Credit: James Veysey/Shutterstock

Everything Elizabeth Debicki Has Said About Playing Princess Diana on 'The Crown'

A solemn role. Elizabeth Debicki is the second actress to play Princess Diana on The Crown, and she's been candid about wanting to ensure that her portrayal is respectful of the late royal. The Tenet actress took over the role from Emma Corrin, who debuted as the Princess of Wales in season 4 of the Netflix series. The My Policeman star's turn covered the period when Diana met and married King Charles III, with the season ending in 1990 as their marriage began to unravel. Season 5 picks up in 1991 with a ton of new faces in the other lead roles. Imelda Staunton steps in for Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II, Jonathan Pryce replaces Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip and Dominic West appears as Charles following Josh O'Connor's turn in seasons 3 and 4. [jwplayer NdfGh3h5-zhNYySv2] The series is not set to tackle Diana's 1997 death until season 6, but the new episodes have already caused a stir among observers concerned about the show's depiction of the royal family. The November 2022 premiere of season 5 will mark the show's first return since the death of Elizabeth two months prior. One month before the premiere, Judi Dench slammed the new season as "completely inaccurate" and asked Netflix to add a disclaimer emphasizing that the show is fictionalized. “The closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism,” the Oscar winner wrote in an open letter to The Times published in October 2022. “No one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged.” Following the backlash, Netflix added a clarifying statement to the season 5 trailer on YouTube and on the show's official web page. "Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatization tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the political and personal events that shaped her reign," the statement read. Debicki, for her part, has praised creator and showrunner Peter Morgan for telling the royal family's story with respect. "The amount of research and care and conversations and dialogue that happen over, from a viewer's perspective, something probably that you would never ever notice is just immense," the Widows star told Entertainment Weekly in October 2022. "From that very first meeting [with] Peter, I knew that I'd entered into this space where this was taken seriously [in] a deeply caring way. So, that's my experience of the show." Keep scrolling for everything Debicki has said about playing the late royal:

Credit: James Veysey/Shutterstock

Everything Elizabeth Debicki Has Said About Playing Princess Diana on 'The Crown'

A solemn role. Elizabeth Debicki is the second actress to play Princess Diana on The Crown, and she's been candid about wanting to ensure that her portrayal is respectful of the late royal. The Tenet actress took over the role from Emma Corrin, who debuted as the Princess of Wales in season 4 of the Netflix series. The My Policeman star's turn covered the period when Diana met and married King Charles III, with the season ending in 1990 as their marriage began to unravel. Season 5 picks up in 1991 with a ton of new faces in the other lead roles. Imelda Staunton steps in for Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II, Jonathan Pryce replaces Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip and Dominic West appears as Charles following Josh O'Connor's turn in seasons 3 and 4. [jwplayer NdfGh3h5-zhNYySv2] The series is not set to tackle Diana's 1997 death until season 6, but the new episodes have already caused a stir among observers concerned about the show's depiction of the royal family. The November 2022 premiere of season 5 will mark the show's first return since the death of Elizabeth two months prior. One month before the premiere, Judi Dench slammed the new season as "completely inaccurate" and asked Netflix to add a disclaimer emphasizing that the show is fictionalized. “The closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism,” the Oscar winner wrote in an open letter to The Times published in October 2022. “No one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged.” Following the backlash, Netflix added a clarifying statement to the season 5 trailer on YouTube and on the show's official web page. "Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatization tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the political and personal events that shaped her reign," the statement read. Debicki, for her part, has praised creator and showrunner Peter Morgan for telling the royal family's story with respect. "The amount of research and care and conversations and dialogue that happen over, from a viewer's perspective, something probably that you would never ever notice is just immense," the Widows star told Entertainment Weekly in October 2022. "From that very first meeting [with] Peter, I knew that I'd entered into this space where this was taken seriously [in] a deeply caring way. So, that's my experience of the show." Keep scrolling for everything Debicki has said about playing the late royal:

Credit: Keith Bernstein

An Overwhelming Task

"When Peter Morgan asked me to do it I was quite overwhelmed, but I've had a little bit of time to process it now," Debicki said during a September 2020 appearance on Good Morning America. "I think that I'm actually just incredibly excited to do it, and she's such an incredibly important figure. She was such a remarkable human being and so the idea of stepping into it is daunting but very exciting."

Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

The Meaning of Diana

"She’s like a symbol — like a magical person. I’m coming to understand more intimately how she existed and still exists very profoundly in collective consciousness,” the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 star told Modern Luxury Manhattan in October 2020. “I think it’s amazing that from age 7, I would remember somebody who had no actual impact on my life as a child in Australia — and yet I was very aware of her presence in the world. I remember seeing her face on magazines. My mother was very aware of her, as I think a lot of women close to her age were. She really followed her quite intimately because she represented something extremely human and extremely symbolic.”

Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

The Disclaimer Debate

After the debate over The Crown's "fictionalized" label, Debicki said she hoped the new disclaimer would put an end to the discussion of the show's veracity. "It was always very clear to me that no one can ever know what happens behind closed doors and that a writer is interpreting what may have happened," the Great Gatsby star told Radio Times in October 2022. "Now the disclaimer is up there, we can maybe stop talking about it and move on. If that's helpful for certain people, so be it, and now the conversation can be returned to the creative endeavor or what the show is."

Credit: Keith Bernstein

Handled With Care

"I'll say that Peter and the entire crew of this job do their utmost to really handle everything with such sensitivity and truth and complexity, as do actors," the Night Manager alum told Entertainment Weekly in October 2022. "The amount of research and care and conversations and dialogue that happen over, from a viewer's perspective, something probably that you would never ever notice is just immense. From that very first meeting [with] Peter, I knew that I'd entered into this space where this was taken seriously [in] a deeply caring way. So, that's my experience of the show."

Credit: Keith Bernstein

The Revenge Dress

Debicki got to wear a replica of Diana's famous "revenge dress" for one episode of season 5, and she said people starting asking her about it as soon as her role was announced. "It fascinated me how entranced people were with that dress," she recalled to Entertainment Weekly in October 2022. "When it became known that I had the part, I received these text messages saying congratulations, [but] there was also a huge amount of text messages about the revenge dress. 'Do you get to wear the revenge dress?' 'Oh, my God, you get to wear the revenge dress!'"

When she put on the costume, however, she understood the interest. "Very significant and quite powerful, but also it provoked something in me as an actor," Debicki said, explaining what it was like to wear the famous garment. "I can't really explain it. It's pretty incredible that a dress would represent a moment in history, or that this human's life would represent so much and become so iconic. So, that was a big day on set for me!"

Credit: Keith Bernstein

The 1st Day

In an October 2022 interview with Radio Times, the Australia native described feeling slightly overwhelmed on her first day of filming. “There’s the actual hurdle of getting on the set on the first day — I remember this strange, very slow fall. It’s like, 'It’s happening. It’s really happening. The cameras are rolling, and I’m really doing this thing,'" she recalled. "People making this show have done this for many years, so there was a real support network around us to say, ‘This is totally normal. Everybody felt like this when they started. It takes time, and then you will find your feet.’ And we all did."