Elizabeth Debicki has called for The Crown's critics to "move on" after Netflix added a disclaimer to the latest trailer.
Elizabeth Debicki in The Crown
The 32-year-old actress will take on the role of the late Princess Diana in the forthcoming fifth series of the controversial show - which tells the story of Queen Elizabeth and is inspired by real events - but she has called for people to speak about the "creative endeavour" of the programme rather than how closely it resembles real life.
She said: "I respect people’s points of view and I, being an actor in the show, understand the nature of what the show is.
"It was always very clear to me that one can never know what happens behind closed doors and that a writer is interpreting what may have happened.
"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 endeavour of what the show is."
Netflix recently added a disclaimer to a trailer for 'The Crown', stating the show is fiction.
Elizabeth believes the "beauty" of the programme is that there is plenty of "room for interpretation".
She added to the Radio Times magazine: "There’s a huge amount of room for interpretation and that’s the value and beauty of 'The Crown' as well, that you receive a different message depending on who you are. That’s good drama to me."
The disclaimer change came shortly after Dame Judi Dench accused the show of being "cruelly unjust" to the Royal Family, and said it should open with a warning that it is "fictionalised drama".
The 87-year-old star said in an open letter: "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 … no one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged.
“The programme makers have resisted all calls for them to carry a disclaimer at the start of each episode.
"The time has come for Netflix to reconsider - for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved, as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years, and to preserve their own reputation in the eyes of their British subscribers."
The description of the show on the streaming service reads: "Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatisation tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the political and personal events that shaped her reign."
Sir Jonathan Pryce - who portrays Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, in the show's fifth series - recently admitted he has been left "bitterly disappointed" by his "fellow artistes" for hitting out at 'The Crown'.
Jonathan - who was knighted in 2021 for his services to drama - said: "The vast majority of people know it’s a drama. They’ve been watching it for four seasons."
Former UK Prime Minister Sir John Major has also criticised the upcoming fifth season, calling an apparent seen depicting himself - played by Jonny Lee Miller - and the then-Prince Charles talking about the queen potentially abdicating is "a barrel-load of malicious nonsense".
But Jonathan has admitted he can understand John "voicing his disquiet" about the series, "because he was there".
He explained: "I’m hugely disappointed by my fellow artistes."
Last month, Elizabeth was said to have filmed some controversial scenes for 'The Crown' showing Diana's final night, when she was killed in a Paris tunnel car crash in 1997 aged 36.
The actress was spotted in a grey suit and black top, the same outfit the late Princess of Wales was wearing on the fateful night.
Netflix has insisted the "exact moment of the crash impact" will not be shown in the series.
Imelda Staunton will play Queen Elizabeth in the forthcoming fifth series, which will be released on November 9th, with Dominic West as Charles, and Lesley Manville plays Princess Margaret.
Tagged in Dame Judi Dench Elizabeth Debicki Queen Victoria