Elizabeth Debicki at The Crown season 6, part 1 premiere in Los Angeles on November 12; Princess Diana’s visit to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in 1996.Photo:Michael Buckner/Getty; Julian Parker/Getty
Michael Buckner/Getty; Julian Parker/Getty
Elizabeth Debickisays closing the role ofPrincess DianainThe Crowncame with a unique weight.
Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Khalid Abdalla as Dodi Fayed in season 6 of The Crown on Netflix.Netflix
Netflix
“The feeling was almost like being underwater. You’re just kind in this swamp of noise, of harassment, of being pursued,” she says. “As the actor playing the role, the character is just constantly focusing on where they’re trying to get to, but there’s just this accumulation of obstacles in the way of that, and that was a very kind of difficult, taxing thing to experience.”
Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Khalid Abdalla as Dodi Fayed in season 6 of The Crown on Netflix.Daniel Escale/Netflix
Daniel Escale/Netflix
The cast ofThe Crownchanged every two seasons to reflect the royals aging through the decades, and Debicki took over from Emma Corrin for the role of Princess Diana inseasons 5and 6. The star says what shifted for the final season was showing a different side to Diana.
“When I opened up the scripts to season 6, what I sawPeter [Morgan]had created for me to follow, was this sense of someone who was freer, who was kind of blossoming into a different version, who had been through the fires and had sort of come through stronger and more focused,” she adds of what the showrunner imagined.
Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana in season 6 of The Crown on Netflix.Daniel Escale/Netflix
Part 1 picks up with Princess Diana’s holiday in Saint-Tropez with her young sons,Prince William(Rufus Kampa) andPrince Harry(Fflyn Edwards), hosted aboard Dodi’s family’s yacht.
“I think in the beginning of season 6, Diana just wants to have a good vacation with her kids. She really just wants to have a nice time, which is a difficult thing to do in life, to say, ‘Everything goes to the side. We just have fun,’ ” Debicki says.
“She really has this intention to have fun. And then of course, the way that Peter’s written it, this relationship with Dodi Fayed just tumbles together and they find each other and they’re surprised at what they find together in terms of the chemistry,” the actress continues. “All of those pieces of making this part of the story were just a joy to do, to experience.”
Fflyn Edwards as Prince Harry, Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Rufus Kampa as Prince William in season 6 of The Crown on Netflix.Daniel Escale/Netflix
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On what she most hoped to bring to the final season, Debicki says it was all about Diana as a mother.
“I felt like I really had an opportunity in this season to just really focus on the relationship between Diana and her boys. Just that love, the joy, and the relief of spending time with them, and feeling really truly yourself when you have your children with you, and a real sense of kind of purpose,” Debicki tells PEOPLE. “That was so important for me because obviously we know where the story is heading. I really focused, whenever there was an opportunity, to show how incredibly alive and beautiful this person was.”
The Crownseason 6, part 1, is now streaming on Netflix.
source: people.com
