Walking in Diana's shoes - 'IT WAS A BIZARRE EXPERIENCE'

The Crown actor opens up about her emotional part as the People's Princess

- Judy Kean

Portraying a real-life person in TV or film comes with a big responsibility for any actor.

But Elizabeth Debicki’s determination to get her performance right as Princess Diana in The Crown was huge – especially when it came to filming the royal’s tragic death.

The Australian star took over playing the late Princess of Wales in series five of the Netflix drama, and series six depicts her relationship with billionaire’s son Dodi Al Fayed and the Paris car crash that killed them both in 1997.

She says everyone working on The Crown felt enormous pressure to handle the storyline appropriately.

“It was an immense responsibility,” admits Elizabeth, 33. “It’s something we thought about, that we carried with us, that woke us up in the night, that we tried our very best to do properly.”

However, she had confidence that the team creating the show could pull it off .

“Having already made a season with these producers and writers, I wasn’t concerned that it wasn’t going to be treated with the respect it deserves.”

Bringing real-life moments, such as Diana’s Mediterranean holiday with Dodi (played by Khalid Abdalla) and their arrival in Paris, to the small screen was a unique experience, says Elizabeth.