Queen Elizabeth in December 2021; Elizabeth Debicki at The Crown’s Los Angeles premiere on November 12; Princess Diana in June 1997.Photo:Victoria Jones - Pool/Getty; Robin L Marshall/WireImage; Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
Victoria Jones - Pool/Getty; Robin L Marshall/WireImage; Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
Elizabeth Debickitakes her final bow asPrincess Dianain season 6 ofThe Crown, concluding the series a year afterQueen Elizabeth’s death.
“It’s been a long journey people have had with the show, and I think it’s one of the beautiful thingsThe Crownhas been able to do, is open up in this imaginary way, the very private lives of these public figures and create this huge empathy, I think, for the audience to experience in regards to characters that you may not have known so much about before,” Debicki exclusively tells PEOPLE.
“I’ll say personally, the loss of the Queen was an enormous sadness. She was a pinnacle, and I think she’s much missed and much loved in my adopted country and around the world as well,” adds the Australian actress of Queen Elizabeth’s death. “So everybody’s intention has always been to sort of tell the stories as authentically as we can and make these people as human as possible, make the characters as human as possible.”
The Crownpaused productionwhen the monarch died at age 96 in September 2022, and showrunner Peter Morgan toldVarietyhe was then compelled tochange the show’s ending.
Elizabeth Debicki attends the Los Angeles premiere of The Crown on Netflix on November 12.Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
“I came into this experience of playing the role very naive. I didn’t know a lot. I kind of had a kind of imprint in terms of who this person was, and I always imagined her as just this kind of extraordinarily beautiful princess and humanitarian figure,” says Debicki, who was 7 when Diana died.
Twenty-six years later, Debicki tells PEOPLE that the weight of playing Diana for the major streaming series was not lost on her.
Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana in season 6 of The Crown on Netflix.Daniel Escale/Netflix
Daniel Escale/Netflix
“I did a lot of research for this role. I probably spent about a year doing research and that just filled in all these pieces and made me have such deep, deep respect and love for this person who I didn’t know so much about. The battle that she went through in terms of media, public perception. I didn’t know things about the divorce and how difficult all of that was for everybody in the family,” she says.
According to the actress, one thing she was delighted to discover was Princess Diana’s sense of fun.
“One of the things that surprised me that I loved finding out is that she had this kind of really wonderful, very cheeky sense of humor, that she was just so warm and human with people. That’s what she was so loved for, and it was so needed, too,” Debicki says of theroyal rebel.
Princess Diana attends a dinner at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. in 1985.Terry Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty
Terry Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty
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“She was a real groundbreaker in terms of her ability to move through perceptions or stigmas and really just use herself as the vessel to enact huge humanitarian change. She was prolific in that and she gave us so much. I was constantly surprised at how far she was moving the needle, whether it was talking about mental health issues, AIDS or landmines," she says of Diana’s lasting legacy. “When we lost her, the world lost a woman who could create amazing change on a humanitarian level as well.”
The show closes with thepremiere of part 2on Dec. 14, told in six episodes. The last saga is expected to conclude multiple storylines, from Queen Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton) mulling the future of the monarchy, then-Prince Charles(Dominic West) andCamilla(Olivia Williams) taking the next step in their relationship whilePrince William(Ed McVey) falls for classmateKate Middleton(Meg Bellamy) at college.
The Crownseason 6, part 1, is now streaming on Netflix.
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
source: people.com
