Emma Corrin got “quite lost and bogged down” whilst preparing for her role as Princess Diana in ‘The Crown’.
Emma Corrin as Princess Diana in 'The Crown'
The 25-year-old actress stars as the late Princess of Wales in the Netflix drama series, and has said she felt “huge pressure” about the role, because there was so much “hearsay” and “speculation” online about the life of the royal.
She said: “It was a huge pressure that I felt from the moment I got the part. I got quite lost and bogged down in hearsay, speculation and kind of like facts that didn’t really give me any sense of who she was. It was really when I got the scripts and reminded myself that this is Peter’s world that we’re creating and this is my version of Diana, that gave me a bit more freedom to bring my own take to her.”
Not all of Emma’s research left her feeling confused though, as she admitted she was “fascinated” by Diana’s childhood, which the royal – who died in a car crash in 1997 – had previously described as “lonely”.
Emma added: “Something that I found fascinating in researching Diana was about her childhood and the lack of support I think she felt from her parents. She speaks about it. I think she said her childhood was very lonely, and really all she wants is a mother, and you realize she was expecting to enter into a family, but she hadn’t quite anticipated the extent to which they were so dysfunctional in their ability to communicate and to love each other in an intimate, emotional way.”
And Emma also explained the scenes which show the rift in Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles – who is played by Josh O’Connor – as she said the couple “both needed reassurance” that they weren’t able to give each other.
Speaking in a new video for AFI Movie Club, she said: “I remember when Josh and I were discussing this scene and it became so clear through what Diana was saying to the Queen that Diana and Charles’ problem existed in the fact that they both needed the same thing. They both needed reassurance and love in almost a parental way that they’ve never quite got before and so because they both had this gap missing that they needed to fill, neither of them would be able to do that for the other.”