Emma Corrin covers the latest issue of Elle to promote her role in The Crown. She’s the young Lady Diana Spencer-to-Princess of Wales. I read something which I had never realized about the Crown, which is that Peter Morgan organizes the seasons by prime minister, not by the phases of the royal family. Season 4 is all about Margaret Thatcher’s reign as PM. Which is why it feels like they’re maybe trying to jam too much of Diana’s life into one one season? Diana apparently goes from 16 to 28 in this season. Hm. Anyway, Emma talks about all of that and more in this Elle piece. Some highlights:
The highs and lows of playing Diana, likely similar to what Diana experienced. “All these feelings of excitement, the novelty of it, the fear and the confusion, that’s all what she would have been feeling. Exactly, like play by play… I live in a flat with my three best mates from university, none of whom are actors. It keeps you grounded. I never want to get lost in it.”
Having to dance as Diana: “It’s so funny because I’m notoriously not a dancer. I’ve got very long limbs and for the best part of my life, they’ve been very uncoordinated. Someone at school said I dance like a spider, and I’ve never got beyond that. It’s always been a running joke in my friendship groups. I do 5Rhythms a lot. It’s like dance meditation. You go into a room and there’s a DJ and it’s in the evening, completely sober, and it’s spiritual. You can just move and dance however you want. I love that kind of expression. For Diana, that’s what dance was. In the series. you see it’s her way of communicating and dealing with her feelings. Through that lens, I was able to find the process of learning jazz, tap, and ballet from nothing, less intimidating. I could understand where it came from. Learning ballet at 24 is the worst. It’s almost impossible. It’s one of those things you need to learn [as] a kid.
The Diana costumes: “The costume and the wigs had such a huge effect especially in the trajectory of her character across the series. We meet her dressed as a tree when she is 16. You leave her in this insane dress when she’s become a woman. Her clothing tells the story of her coming of age in a way that speaks for itself.
Lady Diana Spencer didn’t really have great style: “She’s got yellow overalls. The public knows her as the woman and not the child. Actually, the child is one of the most important parts of understanding her. Especially in episode 3, you see where she came from—a young girl with no real experience being tossed into this world that was about to eat her alive. The costumes show that she’s not just shoulder pads and power suits.
Whether she has anything other than The Crown happening: “No, I’m not actually. It’s a combination of lockdown and waiting for The Crown to come out. I sort of haven’t been able to focus on anything else, but I’m developing a few things.
I’m just reminded that The Crown would have been Emma’s big “a star is born” moment and in any other year, she would have been booking projects right and left just on the HYPE of her performance, but the pandemic has probably screwed that up. As for what she says about dancing… I found that charming. Diana was such a dancer and she knew how to use her body and her height with such grace. And yeah, it would suck to try to learn ballet as an adult.
Cover courtesy of Elle.
I can’t wait!!!! I think she looks enough like Diana to be believable but not so much to creep me out. I also feel like she nailed her body language and aura.
it is the most impossible thing -learning ballet older (I was 40!), but by far the most rewarding thing I have ever done for myself…
Good for you, Paige! I used to take a Sunday morning class in a huge studio converted from a warehouse–it felt like a meditation.
Paige please tell more about learning ballet at 40! I’m 40, 4 months away from 41 and would love to take up ballet but I’m afraid of being older than all the moms, let alone the oldest student in a class.
I have been taking online classes here, from ODC, after someone recommended them and I love them:
https://odc.dance/schedule
I can’t vouch for ballet as I haven’t done that, but the instructors I’ve tried are excellent and they have intro to ballet.
She’s got Jodie Foster vibes, I think. At least in still photos.
I wish they would do a spin off show for Anne’s character.
For me Diana shows her development through her hair styles. And they never get the har right
I always think that even though Diana made speeches and spoke to thousands of people one on one and touched their lives, her true medium of communication and expression was through her body. A touch, a gesture, smile, a dance. It was why, or partly why, she was so devastating on film and in photographs. Emma seems to have that idea too.