As we fast approach the return of The Crown for its sixth and final season, the Netflix show’s director has spoken out about what we can expect when it comes to how the end of Princess Diana’s life is portrayed.
The first half of the season is set to cover the dramatic lead up to Diana’s death, and the man who will direct the episodes that cover these moments – Christian Schwochow – has opened up about what we will and won’t be seeing.
He has explained that even though footage was filmed of Diana (Elizabeth Debicki), in the Paris morgue following her death, it was never intended for these shots to be included in the final edit.
“We did film Diana, but very respectfully — not in a big close-up,” he explained. This was important in enabling Dominic West to best perform his scenes as Prince Charles. So while earlier reports have confirmed that we won’t see the tragic crash that killed the Princess, we now know the whole storyline will be handled very gently.
“It was very, very clear to us that we don’t want to see her body,” he told Deadline. “I actually think that it was not a discussion. Not even in the first version of the cut we would ever see her body.”
“Elizabeth was there to see Dominic’s performance in the hospital, so she knows exactly how raw he was,” he explained, adding the importance of creating space for actors to find the emotion that inevitably comes with these stories, especially as they’re playing complex characters like the royals.
“I always encourage the actors to go deeper into the emotion,” Christian said. “Even though we haven’t usually seen the Queen and the royals showing emotion, there’s another persona when they’re not within public view.”
The director also discussed the way in which Princess Diana’s death is revealed to key characters in The Crown, including the Queen, Philip and Charles as well as her sons William and Harry. According to Deadline, we don’t hear the conversations and the audio for these scenes is silent.
“We don’t have to see and hear that three or four times,” Christian explained. “We try to give all the characters their private space with their grief and sadness to not exploit these emotions too much.”
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