Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Elizabeth Debicki says Diana’s final moments were ‘unbearable’ to film

Australian actor will portray the late princess in her final days in new episodes of the Netflix historical drama

Nicole Vassell
Thursday 16 November 2023 06:47 GMT
Comments
The Crown season 6 part 1 trailer

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Elizabeth Debicki has shared some insight into the realities of portraying Princess Diana’s final moments in the forthcoming season of The Crown – and spoke about how deeply she reacted to filming hectic scenes with the paparazzi.

The final series of Peter Morgan’s multi-award-winning Netflix historical drama will be released in two parts, with the first half of episodes debuting on Thursday 16 November.

Australian actor Debicki will reprise her role as the late Princess of Wales for the show’s final outing. However, this season is even more impactful for Diana as it will feature her death in 1997, aged 36, following a high-speed car crash in a Paris tunnel.

Though the trailer, released last month, did not depict the moment of impact, viewers saw the sombre nature of Diana’s last weeks, as well as the royal family’s reactions to the news of her death.

In a newly published Netflix interview, undertaken before the start of the actors’ strike, Debicki spoke about playing Diana in her final few days, which featured heavy paparazzi presence.

“It was difficult to recreate,” she noted. “It was heavy and very manic, and incredibly invasive. And it had a kind of pressure to it.

“At times it’s almost like an animalistic response to being pursued, by that many actors playing the press, because there’s nowhere you can go and you only have to be in a situation like that for about a minute, before you realise this is completely unbearable.”

Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana in The Crown
Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana in The Crown (Netflix)

Debicki also noted that “no-one should ever [have] to experience” getting through France’s capital city with that level of swarming attention. Though she was acting, the Tenet star felt a genuine sense of pressure when surrounded by other performers shouting like real-life photographers.

“It’s a really unpleasant experience,” she continued. “There are times where, as an actor, it’s like you’re actually doing a stunt, or you’re jumping off a building, or you jump into the water, or whatever it is, that you experience something very physical and there’s not a huge amount of acting that takes place.

Apple TV+ logo

Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days

New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled

Try for free
Apple TV+ logo

Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days

New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled

Try for free

“I think that was what was happening a lot when we were recreating those scenes, because it’s really horrendous to have that many people yelling at you and wanting something. So we let it happen, because it feels like a very important part of the story to tell.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Debicki reflected on filming holiday scenes for season six, and named filming on a yacht as one of her favourite parts of the process.

The Crown - Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana
The Crown - Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana (Daniel Escale/Netflix)

“It was enormous and kind of outrageous and exactly what the story needed,” she said. “So, that was pretty extraordinary, to be on a big boat like that. With bedrooms the size of people’s apartments, enormous. That was fun, and we never really took that for granted, at all, especially because we knew we were coming back here to the grey weather, and so we just soaked every bit of vitamin D into our bones.”

In October, the series creator Peter Morgan responded to criticism of a scene from the final season that is said to show Diana as a ghost.

“I never imagined it as Diana’s ‘ghost’ in the traditional sense,” Morgan told Variety. “It was her continuing to live vividly in the minds of those she has left behind.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in