The world fell in love with Emma Corrin in 2020 when she took on the momentous task of playing Princess Diana in season four of The Crown. After just one season of the Netflix series, the 25-year-old will now pass the honor onto Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki. The highly-anticipated fifth season is said to navigate Princess Diana’s most dramatic (and traumatic) experiences.
Speaking to The Wrap, The Crown alumni is seemingly elated by Debicki’s new role. While the actress is yet to reach out for “tips”, Corrin has said she’d be more than happy to share her wisdom of the late Royal.
“I’m really excited about it. I think Elizabeth is brilliant and I think that it’s totally right to allow her to take on a different kind of life for the next part of [Diana’s] journey,” Corrin told the publication. “So I’ll be really excited to see what happens.”
“No, no, no, no, [Elizabeth] hasn’t [reached out]. But I think that would be so up to her,” Corrin continued. “And if she wants to, I’m obviously here to help.”
At the weekend The Crown Instagram account shared a first look of Imelda Staunton who will play Queen Elizabeth in season five. The casting hasn’t exactly been well received with Harry Potter fans (us included) unable to get past the fact the actress is still reminiscent of her previous role, the infamous Dolores Umbridge.
“Princess Diana’s spirit, her words and her actions live in the hearts of so many,” Debicki said upon the announcement of her new role in August 2020. “It is my true privilege and honor to be joining this masterful series, which has had me absolutely hooked from episode one.”
Debicki, who saw her breakout role in The Great Gatby sat down with GRAZIA in Los Angeles in 2019. Of first moving to the US to continue her career in acting, Debicki said it was the amounts of billboards that shocked her most about Hollywood.
“I woke up in a hotel on Sunset and was 20 years old, had never been to America and I had landed at night,” explained Debicki, her Australian accent as eloquent as they come. “I remember I opened my windows and there were just billboards. I thought, ‘What is this strange Lego Land?’. It was so weird. Imagine if you opened your windows in Sydney and there were billboards everywhere. You’d probably think ‘What happened?’”
Debicki is not the only one to play the Princess on screen this year. Twilight star Kristen Stewart is preparing to front the royal in Pablo Larrain’s Princess Diana biopic, Spencer. According to Variety, the film is slated to premiere at Venice Film Festival which will open from September 1.
