Emma Corrin is prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure she delivers a convincing portrayal of Princess Diana in "The Crown," even if it puts her in a hospital bed. In an interview with Glamour UK, which appears in the outlet's November issue, the 24-year-old actress revealed how filming for the hit Netflix series in Spain came to a dramatic end when an underlying illness took a turn for the worse.
"I’m asthmatic and I had been ill for a while with a bad cough," she recalled. "I had to film a scene in a freezing-cold swimming pool, with the kids playing William and Harry. It was honestly the hardest scene to film because I was genuinely keeping myself alive treading water, and also keeping five-year-old 'Harry' alive, as we found out he couldn’t swim!"
Corrin explained that she was meant to fly back to the U.K. that evening and decided to make a stop at the hospital to pick up antibiotics before her flight, but doctors refused to let her leave.
"The doctors gave me an oxygen test and said, 'We cannot let you go because your oxygen levels are so low,' so I was hospitalized," she explained. Thankfully the staff was friendly enough to make her stay pleasant.
"I remember the nurses, figuring out what I was filming and saying, 'We know you're playing Princess Diana, would you like us to put a cardboard bag over your head so no one recognizes who you are?' in broken English!" Corrin recounted.
During the interview, the star also spoke of the negative impact that labeling prominent figures as icons has on how they are perceived.
"I find the word icon, particularly in reference to Diana and with any woman we put on a pedestal, to be quite reductive," she noted. "The label of icon ignores so much of who Diana was and her beautiful complexity. "She was called the People’s Princess because people felt like they could relate to her," Corrin continued. "That is so much more important than any kind of label."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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