How Elizabeth Debicki Approached Princess Diana’s Final Days in ‘The Crown’

Since Princess Diana was introduced as a character in the fourth season of Netflix’s hit royal drama The Crown, the depiction of her life story has inspired widespread media coverage, earning the show and its creative team both praise and criticism.

For the actresses tasked with bringing the princess’ story to life on screen, the challenges of embodying one of the most famous women in modern history has presented not only an aesthetic challenge but vocal and physical ones too.

The first tasked with portraying Diana from a teenager to Princess of Wales and mother of two children was newcomer, Emma Corrin, whose sensitive portrayal earned her a Golden Globe in 2021.

The role of the princess then fell to Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki who was tasked not only with portraying Diana through the turbulent breakdown of her marriage in season five but also her tragic and untimely death at the age of 36 following a Paris car crash which will be the focus of the first half of season 6.

For her work in The Crown‘s fifth season, the actress received a 2024 Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

Speaking about her portrayal of the princess, Debicki told Netflix: “It’s been such a huge gift to play the part…and to have people see the work and respond to it. I don’t take any of that for granted.”

Speaking about the daunting task of portraying Diana at the end of her life, she said: “It’s a really unique challenge as an actor to portray those days.”

“It was difficult,” she said, reflecting on scenes where the princess was pursued dangerously by paparazzi. “It was heavy and very manic, and incredibly invasive. You only have to be in a situation like that for about a minute before you realize this is completely unbearable. [But] we let it happen, because it feels like a very important part of the story to tell.”

Like most actors, Debicki looked for “ins” to her character—physical and vocal cues which helped establish herself as the princess before shooting scenes. These were developed at the beginning of her work on the show.

One of these “ins,” the show’s movement coach Polly Bennett told Newsweek ahead of season six part one’s debut on November 16, was ballet, a passion also loved by Diana.

“Elizabeth has a background in dance. So, the first time I met Elizabeth, we actually did ballet,” she said. “That was because that’s how Elizabeth understands her body too and it’s a great method for me as a movement coach to understand her sense of her body, and shape and weight, and the length of her legs, and how much grace is in her spine, so I could see that and therefore assess what needed to happen in terms of portraying the character.”

Many scenes in the first episodes of season six appear to highlight Diana’s youth and vitality as she embarks on a new relationship with movie producer Dodi Fayed (played by Khalid Abdalla), with shots highlighting extensions of limbs, flexed poses and wide smiles.

“For me and Elizabeth, it was really fun to find that sort of twinkly humor in Diana,” Bennett explained. “That kind of awareness of her ability to be loved by somebody else and the capability of having a new relationship after you’ve taken a pretty serious knockback…Everything that episode does is kind of show how much joy is inside.”

Another expert who worked with Debicki on her character development for Diana’s final moments was dialect coach William Conacher, who told Newsweek that one of the actress’ advantages was her Australian background.

“I sometimes think that being non-British really helps,” he said of the actress’ mastery of Diana’s upper class melodic tone of voice. “I think that maybe there’s an objectivity about coming from somewhere else that makes you hone in on things that British people would take for granted. I think her Australian-ness was an absolute bonus, not a hindrance.”

The actress’ “in” to get into the voice of Diana on set was the word “hugging.”

“There was an interview that Diana did where she was talking about mental health in children or something like that,” he said. “The speech started with her just going ‘hugging.’ Elizabeth always used that.”

Speaking about the actress’ approach to season six, recreating the dramatic events surrounding Diana’s death, Conacher praised Debicki, highlighting her dedication to doing it to the best of her ability.

“Elizabeth did absolutely feel a huge weight of responsibility as well playing this sainted person,” he said. “So, you know, she took it extremely seriously and worked very, very hard.”

Netflix representatives previously told Newsweek that though events leading up to and following Diana’s death would be shown in the final season of The Crown, the crash would not.

Despite this, speculation around the season ahead of its release is rife, proving once again the power that Princess Diana maintains in popular culture, 26 years since her death.

The Crown Season 6 will be released in two installments on November 16 and December 14 on Netflix.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek’s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek’s The Royals Facebook page.

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