The Crown's Dominic West on how memoir Spare changed Charles and Harry scenes
West revealed that his interpretation of Charles was challenged by revelations in Prince Harry's memoir.
With the sixth season of The Crown approaching, Dominic West has revealed how the publication of Prince Harry's memoir Spare, released at the start of this year, changed his depiction of Charles in the final season.
In an interview ahead of the sixth season, conducted in April 2023, West was asked when he is able to let his version of Charles be vulnerable, given that he is known for having a stiff upper lip.
West said: "All the time. He is very emotional and he's got real anger and I think he's got real sadness to him and real compassion, and so I think he is very emotional, and what's great about The Crown is that you see these public figures in private and I suspect in private he's quite emotional, well that's the way I played him anyway.
"And then Harry wrote his book and said he never hugged him or anything, so we had to change that slightly. Now I've sort of assumed, guessed, that Charles is an emotional and rather open hearted guy in spite of his buttoned up exterior, which he obviously has to have in public."
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Earlier this year, when promoting Spare, Prince Harry revealed in an interview with Stephen Colbert that not only does he watch The Crown, but he also fact checks it as he does.
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This upcoming season of The Crown is set to be especially emotional, as it dramatises the death of Princess Diana and the subsequent outpouring of grief from the public.
Read more:
- The Crown creator has prequel idea and Netflix boss is already on board
- First look at The Crown's recreation of Princess Diana's landmine walk
Director Christian Schwochow, who worked on three episodes of the upcoming season, recently revealed that while they did film shots of Elizabeth Debicki in the Paris morgue, there was never a plan for those scenes to be included in the final edit, and Diana's dead body will not be seen on screen.
The director said: "We did film Diana, but very respectfully - not in a big close-up. It was very, very clear to us that we don't want to see her dead body. I actually think that it was not a discussion. Not even in the first version of the cut we would ever see her body."
The Crown season 6 part 1 will stream on Netflix on 16th November, with part 2 arriving on 14th December respectively. Seasons 1-5 are available now. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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