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Elizabeth Debicki Says Playing Princess Diana in The Crown "Felt Like Coming Home"

The sixth season of The Crown is finally here! In it Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby, Tenet) returns to the role of Princess Diana, portraying the royal in her final days before her tragic death in 1997.

Following in the footsteps of relative newcomer Emma Corrin, who introduced the Princess of Wales to the series in season four, Debicki said that retuning to the character for the show's last season, "felt like coming home." She added, "It just felt very natural to be back."

Of playing the period of time leading up to the car crash that took the royal's life, Debicki shared, "I think it's a really unique challenge as an actor, to portray those days. I really just trusted in Peter's emotional blueprint that he created for us to follow. It's his interpretation and I think it made emotional sense to me, so I clung to that really. Because, obviously, it's devastating and it's fraught and we can never know."

She added that the Paris portion of filming, encompassing Diana's last days, "was difficult to recreate. It was heavy and very manic, and incredibly invasive. And it had a kind of pressure to it." She said, "You feel very trapped. It's a really unpleasant experience. There are times where, as an actor, it's like you're actually doing a stunt, or you're jumping off a building, or you jump into the water, or whatever it is, that you experience something very physical and there's not a huge amount of acting that takes place. I think that was what was happening a lot when we were recreating those scenes, because it's really horrendous to have that many people yelling at you and wanting something. So we let it happen, because it feels like a very important part of the story to tell."

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Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana in season 5 of The Crown.Netflix

In a statement ahead of season 5, Debicki said, "Princess Diana's spirit, her words and her actions live in the hearts of so many. It is my true privilege and honour to be joining this masterful series, which has had me absolutely hooked from episode one."

Debicki later admitted that she was "terrified" to play the royal icon.

“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,” she told the Mirror. “I’m overwhelmed, I’m terrified and I’m excited. I can’t wait to start."

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Elizabeth Debicki at the 2019 Met Gala.Kevin Mazur/MG19 - Getty Images

She also reflected on the late royal came to symbolize humanity.

“She’s like a symbol—like a magical person,” Debicki told Gotham magazine. “I’m coming to understand more intimately how she existed and still exists very profoundly in collective consciousness,” she said. “I think it’s amazing that from age 7, I would remember somebody who had no actual impact on my life as a child in Australia—and yet I was very aware of her presence in the world. I remember seeing her face on magazines. My mother was very aware of her, as I think a lot of women close to her age were. She really followed her quite intimately because she represented something extremely human and extremely symbolic.”

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