It’s hard to imagine her playing any-one else now, but Elizabeth Debicki auditioned for another character on The Crown before being cast as Princess Diana.
With her strong resemblance to the People’s Princess and her recent admission that she thinks there might be ‘no walking away’ from the role, the Australian actress has said she actually initially auditioned for a part in the second season.
‘I auditioned for a small role in season two,’ she said.
‘I went in for the part, and the people in the room saw something in that audition that was wrong for the role I was auditioning for and right for Diana.
‘So it was very unexpected for me. And then over the few years that followed that, I had hoped that it would come around, but I didn’t know for sure. And then it did.’
When asked in the interview with Glamour if she could say what that original role was, she didn’t answer, but teased it was one that wouldn’t be easily guessed.
‘It was not anything you would imagine. When my agent said, “Go and audition for this,” I was like, “Really? Okay”,’ she said.
Taking over the role from Emma Corrin this season, Elizabeth will also play Diana in the next and final season of the series, which is also set to show the moments leading up to her death.
Ahead of the release of the fifth season last week, Elizabeth said it was an ‘enormous challenge and responsibility’ to take on the role of someone so beloved and well-known by the public.
‘Oh definitely [I was nervous]. I think it would be fair to say we were all nervous. It felt like – and the show does feel like – an enormous responsibility, but we are supported by this network of people that understands that pressure and wants us to do it the best we can,’ she said.
Although the series has been courted in controversy for it’s decisions to rewrite parts of history, Elizabeth’s performance has been praised.
Last week Princess Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton said he believed that she’s deserving of a Golden Globe.
‘It was like being in the room with Diana. Elizabeth Debicki and her portrayal of Diana was astonishing. I don’t say this lightly, but that performance really conveys the Diana that I got to know for a couple of years in the early 1990s.’
The Crown is streaming on Netflix.
