Dominic West shared what he found to be the most difficult scene to film for "The Crown" Season 6, and it involved Princess Diana's death.
The actor, who reprises his role as King Charles III in the Netflix series, admitted that he could not have imagined the monarch in real life being emotional. He told People in an exclusive interview ahead of his appearance during Tuesday's "The Crown Finale Celebration" at The Royal Festival Hall in London, that the "big emotional scenes" surrounding Princess Diana's (played by Elizabeth Debicki) death were the hardest to film in the new season.
"In many ways, they're wonderful for an actor. But Peter (Morgan) had written two scenes, one in the Scottish mountains and one in the hospital in Paris where Charles bawls, crying. He's wailing," West shared of what the showrunner envisioned in the script.
He continued: "I read that and thought, 'How does a famously buttoned-up family, famously unemotional family, what are they like in times of high emotion when something deeply traumatic happens?' I was very worried about it, then, of course, comes the day you're doing it and you're acting, looking at the body of Diana and what you've got is a cross on a map box, that's what you've got to look at."
West added: "They're difficult, those scenes and I suppose those are the ones I was most worried about."
A first look at the epic conclusion. The Crown Part 2 debuts on the 14th of December. pic.twitter.com/NeNSK25Dy0
— The Crown (@TheCrownNetflix) November 28, 2023
In the same interview, the 54-year-old likewise shared how "The Crown" changed his perception of the British Royal Family. He acknowledged that people's perception is very much dictated by what they read in the media and what they see in the royal family's public persona than "working on trying to find out what's going on privately and what's going on their minds and what's going on in their private conversations".
West shared: "Peter imagines them so brilliantly and base grounds them very firmly in whatever facts we have, that I suppose I came to emphasise much more, certainly, with Charles and feel a sympathy for him."
Season 6 of "The Crown" was split into two parts, with the first already available to stream on Netflix. The first four episodes follow Princess Diana's relationship with Dodi Fayed before their fatal car crash in Paris in August 1997. Part two, which will close out the series, will premiere on December 14 and will have six episodes. Its timeline is expected to conclude around 2005 during the wedding year of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
West hinted that the final episode pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Sept. 8, 2022. He said elements of her funeral on September 19 will come into play and the inclusion made him realise that ultimately "The Crown" is about her reign.
"It's a show about Queen Elizabeth II. And I think that's why they've split this season in two — because the story of Diana is so big and dominant that what we come back to is Elizabeth, and it ends with her. You realise it's the story of her reign, this extraordinary length of reign, and this extraordinary life," he said.
West nearly turned down the offer to play King Charles III in Season 5 and 6 of "The Crown". But after a year of "trying to make a decision about it" he finally agreed. He shared that part of the decision why he signed on for the role was because he likes the monarch and that he was "really interested in things he's interested in". As part of his research into his role as King Charles III, he rented a cottage in Cornwall at the royal's estate and even ended up buying some plants from the monarch's nursery as a present for his wife.
