Prince Charles acted as a secret advisor to Sir Kenneth Branagh.
Prince Charles advised Sir Kenneth Branagh
The 61-year-old actor was concerned about getting into the right mindset to play a king in his 1989 adaptation of Shakespeare's 'Henry V' but a friend put him in touch to the heir to the throne, who was "very open" about the "burdens" and difficulties of his position.
Speaking on the Hollywood Reporter's 'Awards Chatter' podcast, he said: “I thought, ‘Well, how do you find out about what that’s like?’
“I was voicing these concerns over a pint with a friend of mine who said, ‘Well, actually, you know, I do know someone who knows someone’. He said, ‘If you’re serious and you will be discreet…’ And so he arranged a number of intermediary meetings. I was very clearly screened.
“But eventually I met Prince Charles, who was very open, particularly about the burdens of expectations, and the fact of isolation. And this to me was very interesting.
“It was interesting also to hear how he spoke: very quietly. People in authority often do. They don’t need to raise their voices.”
Kenneth - who also directed the movie - was stuck by the "degree of thoughtfulness" and attention to detail Charles and his family put into meeting members of the public, because the prince told him he tried to “particularise and individualise and make moments memorable”, and had a desire “to connect with people who were often dazzled by the job title, as it were”.
Kenneth told how the prince noted the people who he met only "became themselves" a few minutes before their encounters ended.
He added: "So he had to make an extra effort to make that connection and accept that there would always be a separation.
“That does something to somebody’s insides. It does something to the way they then make decisions about other people’s welfare.
“Built in, and I could see it in every fabric of his being, is a sense of duty, a sense of privilege, a sense of sacrifice.
“For all of the, as it were, first-class life that [the Royal family] lead, they know it’s an accident of birth and one that they need to meet by a commitment to serving others.
“And I saw in his case a genuine expression of that.”
Charles attended the premiere of the film and Kenneth was among the guests when he married Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in 2005.
At a gala show to celebrate the prince's 70th birthday in 2018, the 'Belfast' filmmaker recited the prologue from 'Henry V'.
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