‘The Crown’ Star Elizabeth Debicki Talks Re-creating Diana's Iconic Fashion

‘The Crown’ Star Elizabeth Debicki Talks Re-creating Diana's Iconic Fashion,The actress who plays the Princess of Wales in the fifth season of the Netflix series shares her personal views on the British royal family.

‘The Crown’ Star Elizabeth Debicki Talks Re-creating Diana’s Iconic Fashion

Elizabeth Debicki is putting her own spin on Princess Diana in season five of Netflix’s The Crown.

The actress sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about her role as the Princess of Wales, including re-creating some of Diana’s iconic fashion and her personal views on the royals.

Season five of The Crown follows the British monarchy in the 1990s with the introduction of Prime Minister John Major (Jonny Lee Miller) while focusing on the troubled relationship between Diana and then-Prince Charles (Dominic West). Debicki says while a lot of the emphasis went into highlighting a period of isolation and media frenzy for the Princess of Wales, it was also a time of her coming into her own. “It was a very particular point in time in her life in season five,” Debicki says. “It’s this treacherous journey in terms of the press and separation and porce of her marriage. We know it’s a super isolated period of time for her and she suffered tremendously.”

Debicki also explains that she spoke to many people who closely knew Diana as part of her research. “The thing, apart from bringing to life [what] was on the page, it was also important to me that we see this lightness and this joy and this desire to have love and fun and all those glorious things in her life,” Debicki says.

Debicki took over the role of Diana from Emma Corrin, who played a younger version of the princess during season four, which covered the early years of her tumultuous marriage to Charles. Debicki notes that while she didn’t get a chance to speak to Corrin prior to filming, her predecessor’s performance did very much inform her own portrayal of Diana.

“It’s almost like a piece of your puzzle in a way,” Debicki says, calling it “a baton pass” or “sort of like a relay race with the seasons of the show.”

She adds, “The feeling you have coming into this is very much a fresh start for you and this is your lane and we sort of built it for you, so as much as it informs you there’s never a sense of you need to do what this person’s done.”

Debicki also speaks about re-creating some of Diana’s iconic fashion moments this season, including the infamous revenge dress. Debicki explains that she worked extensively with costume designers Amy Roberts and Sidonie Roberts on all of Diana’s looks. “There’s a duality in the process for the costumes,” she says. “One is something that we’re creating based on a silhouette that exists in re-creations of some of her more ‘normcore’ she invented in the ’90s. And then, obviously, there are these symbolic, really important looks that everybody is waiting for. And so I think there is a lot of pressure to get [the revenge dress] right. There were many many many fittings because it’s an incredible dress.”

The actress noted that re-creating the moment especially felt symbolic. “It’s this sort of triumphant moment for her, but it’s also tinged with this really deep sadness,” she says. “And I think we understand that duplicity when we saw the moment in real life.”

As for Debicki’s personal favorite ’90s Diana look? The actress says it was more of her laid-back, everyday style. “I loved her sort of mum uniform,” Debicki explains. “It’s so chic but it’s so casual, and it was so transgressive for a royal to sort of drop their kids off at school in high-waisted jeans and a baseball cap, and that side of her I loved because I think it was very rebellious.”

And when asked if the series has changed her own view of the British monarchy, Debicki states she does feel a sense of compassion. “I always loved the queen but I was sort of a little bit too young to have lived through those ’90s memories.” She adds, “I think [there’s] compassion and understanding for how difficult it is and how hard they work. The tremendous amount of sacrifice, I definitely feel that I have an understanding of that albeit from this perspective, but I think they’re remarkable to carry that weight on their shoulders.”

Watch more of Debicki’s interview in the video above.

The Crown is now streaming on Netflix.