Everything Emma Corrin Has Said About Playing Princess Diana: She’s ‘Almost Fictional’

Credit: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Everything Emma Corrin Has Said About Playing Princess Diana: She's 'Almost Fictional'

A legendary portrayal. Emma Corrin only got to play the late Princess Diana on one season of The Crown, but they made an indelible mark on the role. The My Policeman star landed the role in early 2019 and made their debut in season 4 of the Netflix series, which premiered in November 2020. The eight-episode season focused heavily on Prince Charles (Josh O'Connor) and Diana in the early days of their marriage. "I remember when I got offered the role, one of the directors, Ben Caron, talked to me and was like, 'Your life is going to change a lot. You’ll probably feel overwhelmed at times and quite scared with the amount of press attention you’ll get, and it will feel exciting at the same time,'" Corrin told The Daily Beast in January 2021. The actor, however, used those feelings to their advantage, as the real-life Diana was hounded by photographers until her death in 1997. "[Ben] said, 'Anytime you’re pap’d or someone is following you and you get some weird attention that is scary to you, use it, because that is exactly what she would be going through,'" the U.K. native continued. "And that helped me, because while we were filming, my trajectory echoed hers in a way." [sendtonews type="float" key="jy16DhHA6t-2841357-14453"] Though Elizabeth Debicki took over the role of Diana for season 5, Corrin certainly made a strong impression on fans and critics during their brief time with the show. They won a Golden Globe and Critics' Choice Television Award for their performance, and they were later nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Primetime Emmy. Though he didn't comment specifically on Corrin's portrayal, Prince Harry admitted in February 2021 that he has seen at least some of The Crown. "It's loosely based on the truth," the Invictus Games founder told James Corden. "Of course it's not strictly accurate, but ... it gives you a rough idea about what that lifestyle, what the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else, what can come from that." Still, the Pennyworth alum has no plans to ask Harry or his brother, Prince William, for their opinion if they ever meet them. “I’d be interested to know what they think,” they told British GQ in November 2020. That said, they added: “If I ever saw them at a party, I’d probably leave!” Keep scrolling to see everything Corrin has said about playing the late princess: [podcast_block]

Credit: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Everything Emma Corrin Has Said About Playing Princess Diana: She's 'Almost Fictional'

A legendary portrayal. Emma Corrin only got to play the late Princess Diana on one season of The Crown, but they made an indelible mark on the role. The My Policeman star landed the role in early 2019 and made their debut in season 4 of the Netflix series, which premiered in November 2020. The eight-episode season focused heavily on Prince Charles (Josh O'Connor) and Diana in the early days of their marriage. "I remember when I got offered the role, one of the directors, Ben Caron, talked to me and was like, 'Your life is going to change a lot. You’ll probably feel overwhelmed at times and quite scared with the amount of press attention you’ll get, and it will feel exciting at the same time,'" Corrin told The Daily Beast in January 2021. The actor, however, used those feelings to their advantage, as the real-life Diana was hounded by photographers until her death in 1997. "[Ben] said, 'Anytime you’re pap’d or someone is following you and you get some weird attention that is scary to you, use it, because that is exactly what she would be going through,'" the U.K. native continued. "And that helped me, because while we were filming, my trajectory echoed hers in a way." [sendtonews type="float" key="jy16DhHA6t-2841357-14453"] Though Elizabeth Debicki took over the role of Diana for season 5, Corrin certainly made a strong impression on fans and critics during their brief time with the show. They won a Golden Globe and Critics' Choice Television Award for their performance, and they were later nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Primetime Emmy. Though he didn't comment specifically on Corrin's portrayal, Prince Harry admitted in February 2021 that he has seen at least some of The Crown. "It's loosely based on the truth," the Invictus Games founder told James Corden. "Of course it's not strictly accurate, but ... it gives you a rough idea about what that lifestyle, what the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else, what can come from that." Still, the Pennyworth alum has no plans to ask Harry or his brother, Prince William, for their opinion if they ever meet them. “I’d be interested to know what they think,” they told British GQ in November 2020. That said, they added: “If I ever saw them at a party, I’d probably leave!” Keep scrolling to see everything Corrin has said about playing the late princess: [podcast_block]

Credit: MCPIX/Shutterstock

Gratitude to the Princess

“Most of all, thank you so much to Diana,” the actor said during their acceptance speech at the 78th Annual Golden Globe Awards in January 2021. “You have taught me compassion and empathy beyond any measure that I could ever imagine. On behalf of everyone who remembers you so fondly and passionately in our hearts, thank you.”

Credit: Magnus Sundholm/Shutterstock

Starting From Scratch

“I had no memory of her, so I think that helped me,” Corrin told W Magazine of Diana in August 2021. “It was a blank slate.”

Credit: Matt Baron/Shutterstock

Their Own Spin

“I got the script, and I sort of had this mad realization that as much as this is Diana, this character is almost fictional. And you should treat it as such,” they explained in a June 2021 interview with Variety. “When I got the scripts, I could really just work off what was on the page. It’s sort of a love story. It’s a marriage. It’s two humans navigating extraordinary circumstances by virtue of their position in society. As soon as I narrowed it down to that, I could make any research much more specific.”

Credit: Shutterstock

A Tricky Business

“I can’t imagine,” the actor told British GQ in November 2020 when asked how they think William and Harry might feel about the show. “I’m not going to say it doesn’t matter, because that would be ignorant. If someone made a program about my grandma, who died [in 2019], that would be difficult for me to watch."

Credit: Shutterstock

Two Different People

“It’s almost like it’s two separate people. That’s how I was approaching it,” Corrin told The Daily Beast in early 2021, explaining how they saw the young Diana they were playing as a very different person than the world-famous activist fans knew and loved. “Generally, we have a much better understanding of what older Diana was like than younger Diana — there’s hardly any footage of her when she was younger, living with her flatmates before she got married.”

Credit: Ollie Upton/Netflix

How They Prepared

"I only watched the documentary Diana: In Her Own Words, which is now on Netflix," Corrin told Glamour in November 2020. "I didn’t watch another documentary. I don’t think I would have got the part without it. Honestly. I watched it before I did any audition. I haven’t watched it in about a year, but it still comes up every day on my Netflix: 'You wanna watch this again?' It’s a phenomenal thing, and honestly, for research purposes, you don’t need much more, because it is her, talking about her life, overlaid with footage. It’s everything."

Credit: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

What They Learned

"I don't think my perception changed particularly, but I think I just had a new understanding or greater understanding of the complexity of everything that she was going through," the St John's College alum told Town & Country in November 2020. "I think it gave me a real appreciation of how young she was and the life she'd left behind and how she went into this thinking it was going to be one thing and then it turned out to be very much another."

Credit: Des Willie/Netflix

Sympathy for the Royal

"We all have an understanding of what she was like as she got older, but her childhood ... how isolated and lonely she felt for a lot of it," Corrin told The Guardian in January 2021. "She was plucked from this lovely, warm situation with her friends in her flat in Earl’s Court into this very austere world. She was a teenager [when she got engaged]. That’s incredibly fragile: you don’t know who you are yet. You’re on the cusp of something. Then she was launched [as a royal] and so much was demanded of her. I went into every working day thinking about this swinging scale of vulnerability and strength. Vulnerability wasn’t the entirety of her. She endured an incredible amount.”

Credit: Marechal Aurore/ABACA/Shutterstock

Diana's 'Queer' Tendencies

In October 2022, Corrin said that they saw Diana as "queer" because of the way she was an "other" within the royal family. “In many ways Diana was so queer,” the Pennyworth alum told the Sunday Times, adding that the princess always embraced "outsiders" during her life.