The first timeEmma Corrinstepped foot on the set ofThe Crownwas actually during season 3, not season 4 when she made her onscreen debut asPrincess Diana.
“They were doing some pickups for season 3 and they had asked me to come to set where they were filming to do a chemistry read withJosh [O’Connor, who playedPrince Charles],” she says in the new issue of PEOPLE, on stands now.
“I remember we did the scene a couple of times and then Ben [Caron, the director] turned to Suzanne [Mackie, the producer] and was like, ‘Can I do it now?’ And he sort of got down and was like, ‘Will you be Diana?’ It felt kind of like a marriage proposal.”
Needless to say Corrin said yes.
Hollie Fernando
Corrin, 25, got to work researching Diana. “To start with there was a lot of reading, and watching and that kind of thing,” she says. “But I actually found that I sort of reached a bit of a brick wall with it.”
So she began working with a choreographer, who helped her with the many dance scenes inThe Crown. “A lot changed when I started working with Polly Bennett and we did a lot of character and movement stuff together,” says Corrin. “We started working on basically figuring her out, inside out. So taking our story, the scripts, and figuring out her arc over the series and what she’d be feeling at this moment, and then why she would do that.”
It was successful, as last month Corrin’s work wasnominatedfor an Emmy for best supporting actress in a drama series. Even some of Princess Diana’s friends reached out to her. “And I had heard from them, and it was really wonderful to sort of hear how much it had meant to them,” she says.
While the journey has been intense, she’s grateful to have shared it with O’Connor, 31.
Emma Corrin as Princess Diana.Des Willie/Netflix
Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) and Lady Diana Spencer (Emma Corrin) in The Crown.Des Willie/Netflix
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The Crownseasons 1–4 are streaming on Netflix now, and the 73rd PrimetimeEmmy Awardswill air September 19 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
source: people.com
