The Crown star admits she’s ‘terrified’ at the prospect of playing Princess Diana
Hollywood star Elizabeth Debicki, 30, on playing Princess Diana in hit Netflix series The Crown, her audition nerves and why she was fully prepared for lockdown
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It’s fair to say that Elizabeth Debicki’s acting career isn’t shaping up too badly at all.
Even if you don’t know her name that well (yet), you will know her face, whether it’s from The Night Manager – where she shared the screen with Tom Hiddleston’s bum in an unforgettable sex scene – or in one of her many glittering turns in Tinseltown.
The Aussie actress got her first break in The Great Gatsby.
‘For my first scene there were 400 extras and seven cameras on cranes. I thought that was normal because I’d never done anything important,’ she said of the baptism of fire she had on her first Hollywood movie experience.
She has since ticked off superhero on the old CV in Guardians Of The Galaxy II and played an abused wife in Widows alongside Viola Davis. But never mind all that, because she is going to be Princess Diana.
Yup, the 30-year-old has bagged herself the plum role of the ‘People’s Princess’ in the last two series of the Netflix epic The Crown, and we’re stoked about this, never mind her.
She’s also in a cinema near you right now, starring in big thriller Tenet alongside John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Kenneth Branagh and Michael Caine.
Elizabeth has left her native Melbourne for life in LA where she spent lockdown, and said that making Tenet got her fully prepped for a Covid-induced stint at home. ‘I’d be living in an apartment in Estonia for months, a hotel in Bulgaria, not seeing anyone from my real life.
So maybe, in a funny way, I’ve been a little bit in training for lockdown for a while. I’ve spoken to a few actor friends of mine about this – perhaps we already have coping mechanisms for being away from our lives.’
She talks playing the world’s sweetheart, the epic experience of starring in Tenet, and how she copes with the horror of the audition process…
You’re going to be playing Diana, oneof the most famous women in the world,in one of the biggest TV shows in the world, so no biggie…
It’s a dream role. She is such a remarkable human being and she really does still live in the hearts of so many people. I’m overwhelmed, I’m terrified and I’m excited. I can’t wait to start.
And equally no biggie, you’re in the biggest movie since cinemas reopened, Tenet. Was it all a bit daunting?
I must admit that, going into it, I found it all completely surreal and overwhelming. But as I stepped onto the movie, all of that dropped away because you are made to feel very clear about what it is you are there to make.
The times when I felt the scope of it all was in the geography we covered shooting the film.
We were in so many different countries that it was like being a part of an extremely efficient travelling circus and military base.
We would just pack everything up in a little cube almost, and then we would open the thing back up in another country.
That was when I would really feel the scale of it all. And it was the longest shoot I’ve ever worked on too.
Sounds intense…
When you watch the film you see this incredible trip that takes eight or nine minutes, but when you’re shooting it might take weeks and weeks to get the pieces together.
But whether you are shooting a small scene between two actors or an enormous thing with 17 cars moving, the director Christopher Nolan makes it all feel the same.
And Kenneth Branagh plays your husband…
Some of the places our characters go together are quite dark, so I was very lucky to have a scene partner like him to really delve into the material.
I play Kat who really has a pretty amazing journey, emotionally and psychologically.
You’re obviously a dab hand at auditions, given all these amazing parts?
There are many psychological games that you can play, but I just think you have to breathe! You want to avoid that emotional rollercoaster if you can.
I’m the type of person who can take a breath at 6pm and think, ‘Oh my God, I think that’s the first one I’ve taken all day!’
I also try to form a little plan – sort of like when you see an ex. Last year when I had to audition, it was utter terror, but I had a good plan and it really helped.
The more you invest in something, the more you care and the more emotional it is. I don’t think you can avoid that.
You do seem to like the intense roles…
I am drawn to those kind of darker roles, definitely. That makes me tick. I would love to do a comedy, but I don’t know comedy. It’s not where I come from. It’s not what I trained in or anything. Nobody has thrust comedy my way, which is a shame.
Five things you need to know about Elizabeth Debicki
1. She was bornin Paris to a Polish father and an Australian mum. They moved to Melbourne when she was five. She’s the oldest of three, and a ‘bossy big sister’.
2. Both her parents were ballet dancers and she also trained in ballet as a child. She wanted to be an archaeologist when she grew up, so that she could dig for things while wearing khakis.
3. Her first movie was A Few Best Men with fellow Aussies Rebel Wilson and Olivia Newton John. She’s also worked with Cate Blanchett in the Sydney theatre and was the most starstruck she’s ever been.
4. She is a beyond statuesque 6ft 3in tall about which she said, ‘You just have to accept it or it will bea burden for the rest of your life.’
5. The best advice she’s ever been given is ‘always wash your own socks’. This was from Cate Blanchett who had been given these marvellous words of wisdom by Meryl Streep.
Life as Lady Di
The Crown has anointed Elizabeth to play Princess Diana in the fifth and sixth (and final, sob) series. She’ll follow on from acting newbie Emma Corrin, who plays Diana when she was the bashful young lass meeting Prince Charles in series four, coming to Netflix later this year.
‘It’s my true privilege and my honour to be joining this masterful series, which had me hooked from episode one,’ Elizabeth says. It’s in with the new for the other cast too – Imelda Staunton will replace Olivia Colman as the Queen, Jonathan Pryce will be Prince Philip and Lesley Manville is Princess Margaret.
There’s no talk yet of who will play Prince Charles, or the young William and Harry in the series, which will take us up to the 1990s and won’t be on screen until 2022.
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