Elizabeth Debicki IS “The Crown’s” Princess Di

She's a good actress, though. Completely stole Widows from Viola.

Poor Viola.

Isn't she a foot too tall to play Di?

When is the next season coming out??

They can put everyone else on apple crates when they have to act besides her.

Noooooo. She's awful.

Diana was tall herself, like 5'10" or 5'11"

My wife is available. Call 1800 SCR EWU

R8 Debicki is 7'3.

Oh GOOD, she’s tall! This was the awful problem with ....what’s her name the Australian. Naomi Watts.

Just google imaged Debicki. She’s got that disdainful aristocratic expression nailed.

I think you mean 6'3" r10 LOL

Does Debicki have some kind of marfan syndrome?

Debicki is a decent actress, quite underrated. And she could really pull off the physical resemblance. I hope she captures Dianas BPD nutjob energy but she will probably be pressured to go with the Shy Perpetually Victimsed Virgin narrative that Dianas acolytes prefer. The former portrayal would br more accurate and entertaining than the latter but probably verboten. Funny how these Aussies are all landing biopic roles or roles of other famous people.

R15 won't this one be playing Di in the 90s?

She was the saving grace of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and she was fine in The Night Manager.

OP would bitch no matter who was cast in the role.

R18 and rightfully so...it is just weird to cast ANYONE in this role since EVERYONE on the planet knows exactly how Diana looked and acted. This is a part they needed to skip...

R16 Yes, I believe so but Dianas superfans always trot out the " She was a shy 19 year old Virgin !" line over anyone critical of her behavior,even the things she did well into her 30s.

[quote] it is just weird to cast ANYONE in this role since EVERYONE on the planet knows exactly how Diana looked and acted.

You mean, as opposed to Queen Elizabeth II?

[QUOTE] She's a good actress, though. Completely stole Widows from Viola.

Gtfoh. That movie isn’t worth watching without Viola.

She's excellent in "The Night Manager" and "Vita & Virginia" (although she is far too tall to play Virginia Woolf, she is much better in the part than Nicole Kidman was).

She genuinely does look Diana, so I think it's excellent casting. She's brave to play the part, but Diana is no more recognizable than the Queen herself, whom most people have actually seen speak far more often than they ever saw Diana speak. And of course all kinds of people every bit as famous as Diana (and whom people have heard speak more often than they heard Diana) have been played in movies and TV by other people, from Winston Churchill to Richard Nixon to Marilyn Monroe.

[quote] I hope she captures Dianas BPD nutjob energy but she will probably be pressured to go with the Shy Perpetually Victimsed Virgin narrative that Dianas acolytes prefer.

That's exceptionally unlikely. Emma Corrin may bring some of the latter to the part in Season 4, when she plays Diana from 1979 (when she met Charles) to 1990; but seasons 5 & 6 will cover the years 1990 to after Diana's death (probably 2003, the year of the Golden Jubilee).

By 1990, when Debicki will pick up the part, Diana had already definitely had an extramarital affair with James Hewitt and probably also had one with her adored bodyguard Barry Mannakee (pictured), so I doubt there will be much of the virgin narrative by that time.

I am curious how she will be in season 6.

Season 4 is supposed to take us through 1990, so seasons 5 & 6 should cover 1990-2003.

Halfway through that is Diana's death, so what will she do in Season 6? Be a ghost?

Well, she’s no Kristen Stewart.

When do they start filming? 2025? 2026?

I totally agree and am sure that there would never be any an outcry out if they skipped over Diana being in the series. Logical point sir R19.

Josh O’Connor is a perfect young Charles. Who could play the older Charles? Jack Davenport, maybe?

Good choice r29

R19 "it is just weird to cast ANYONE in this role since EVERYONE on the planet knows exactly how Diana looked and acted" Yeah, as opposed to any other famous person in a biographical movie

Michelle Rodriguez is banging her and has been for the last two years or so. DL is out of the loop

R25 she will probably just be in season 5

She's a phenomenal actress...the only good thing about 'The Great Gatsby' remake. I think she's more classically beautiful than Diana, but hopefully they don't give her a prosthetic nose or anything (fortunately, the producers are unlikely to go that route...they ultimately decided not to have Olivia Coleman wear blue contacts even though her eyes are brown...unlike The Queen's).

I'm excited. While having an ingenue will work for Diana's introduction as a naive teenager, it'll be fun to have someone capable of balancing the recklessness, vulnerability, and ambition of her final years.

I saw her in a play starring alongside Mark Strong at the National Theatre in London a few years ago. The play was The Red Barn, by David Hare, if anyone cares. She didn't wear shoes at all during the performance, and MS was in shoes the whole time. She was still taller.

I think to play Diana on screen, the actor’s physical presence is more important than acting chops. It’s probably not a hard role to play, or to elicit from a performer; it’s all emotions, facial expressions and body language; smiles, tears, flashing your eyes, etc: She wasn’t a complex woman, just a troubled and deeply unhappy one. A silent film actress transported from 1920 could be coached to play her convincingly.

R36, you would think that, but even Naomi Watts (who's proven to be a good actress) absolutely bombed in her portrayal of Diana. You do have a point though: The key to effectively playing Diana is an expressive face, which clearly shows emotion. The first thing I picture when I think of Elizabeth are her eyes, so that works in her favor.

R37, you seem to have missed my point; Naomi Watts has none of Diana’s physical presence.

Slightly OT, but I've always found Mark Strong very hot.

Mark Strong is okay I guess. Personally, I'm not into intense, sexy, deep-voiced, talented men I'd beg to break me in half if they came within my field of vision.

Why am I drooling as I type this?

R21 - yes, it is different than playing Elizabeth because the Queen is a sort of distant presence and gave few interviews in her life. Most people just think of an aged lady in pastel clothes waving and haven't a clue how she acts or sounds unless you are particularly interested and look it up (which I doubt most people do...let's sit at home Saturday night and Google interviews with the Queen!).

R31 - yeah a bit different than most famous people because she was so omnipresent and rehashed and recalibrated after death. Look at films about Ray Charles and Johnny Cash...convincing because few people still knew by then how the acted or exactly how they looked...not so with Diana.

Great choice; when I saw Debicki in "The Tale", I thought she would be a good choice to play Diana in "The Crown". She has that perfect combination of regal/fragile.

Debicki is an excellent choice. I'm assuming that her role in Season 6 will be mostly flashbacks.

Jack Davenport is an excellent candidate for older Prince Charles.

R41 What the hell are you talking about? On what planet is Diana more popular than Johnny Cash, Freddie Mercury, Elton John etc.? Only on DL maybe

I missed the part where Johnny Cash's funeral was watched by hundreds of millions of people, and the US was basically at a standstill for 2 weeks.

Johnny Cash, Freddie Mercury, and Elton John undoubtedly have a more enduring fame that will last generations. However, at no point in their lives were they ever among the top 3 most famous people in the world. Diana was.

Yeah, and only reason she was it's because the tragic way she died. Has she still been alive, she would be long time forgotten by the world except fir DL, who are for some strange reason obsessed with British royal family. Just like she was forgotten soon after her death. Every young person today knows about Freddie Mercury or Kurt Cobain, most don't even know who Diana was, let alone who she looked like and acted

Boring casting and literal erasure! Several women of color auditioned and none of them got the role. What is this bullshit! SCANDALOUS in these times. BLM!