Emma Corrin on playing Princess Diana in Netflix’s The Crown season 4: ‘I’m a bit posh, so it was not a huge leap’

Nov 19 , 2020

“My sympathy will always lie with her – but I also have a huge appreciation of Charles … I don’t think you can pick a side,” says Emma Corrin of playing Princess Diana in season four of Netflix drama The Crown. Photo: @AdamMartynActor/Twitter

Di’s split from Prince Charles? Emma Corrin won’t pick a side after her portrayal of beloved British royal Diana Spencer who she says she knows ‘better than anyone else’

The reality of playing one of the most famous women of the 20th century set in for Emma Corrin one day on the streets of West London.

She was filming a scene for season four of The Crown re-creating the early media frenzy around Princess Diana – née Lady Diana Spencer – the bashful 19-year-old nursery school assistant who became the subject of insatiable public curiosity thanks to her burgeoning romance with Prince Charles.

I really hope none of the royal family watches it

Benjamin Caron, director, The Crown

Emma Corrin as Princess Diana in season four of The Crown. Photo: Netflix

Corrin, in character in a feathered blond wig, stepped out of Diana’s former building in Earl’s Court and was swarmed by extras clicking away on vintage cameras. But just beyond the actors pretending to be photographers was a throng of real-life paparazzi, there to get a shot of the young, unknown actress stepping into a career-making role as “the people’s princess”, a woman who redefined contemporary celebrity.

In that surreal moment, Corrin tried to seize on the advice that director Benjamin Caron had given her when she got the part.

Emma Corrin, left, and Josh O’Connor in a scene from The Crown. Photo: AP

“He took me aside and very helpfully said, ‘You and Diana are going through a very similar thing. You’re going to suddenly be in the public eye, in a role that everyone has had their eyes on,’” Corrin recalls. “‘You will be in the newspaper and you’ll be papped. Anything you feel about it, be it fear or excitement or nervousness, be aware of it because that’s exactly how she would have been feeling.’”

“God,” she continues, “he was so right.”

Corrin is speaking via video conference from a friend’s home in the English countryside, where she’s enjoying a few days of quiet before The Crown would return to Netflix on Sunday (November 15) and beam her likeness into living rooms around the world. Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, she’s sitting at her laptop wearing earbuds and a cosy jumper instead of strutting the red carpet in a couture gown. But she doesn’t know anything different: before The Crown, the 24-year-old had only a few acting credits, the most notable a recurring part in the Batman prequel series Pennyworth.