‘The Crown’ Stars Wept After Filming Diana’s Final Scene

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for The crown season 6, part 1.

One of the most talked about – and controversial – scenes from Netflix’s new season. The crown occurs during Episode 4, when Elizabeth Debicki’s Princess Diana pays a final visit to Dominic West’s Prince Charles after Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed die in a car accident in Paris. While many media outlets have described this iteration of Diana as a “ghost,” it’s clear that creator Peter Morgan wants audiences to view her as a figment of Charles’ imagination rather than a supernatural force. The executive producer also includes another scene during the same episode in which the princess speaks with Imelda Staunton’s Queen Elizabeth II, and a third where Salim Daw’s Mohamed Al-Fayed is visited by his son Dodi, played by Khalid Abdullah.

“For me, what Peter was doing with those scenes was having a real conversation about grief,” Debicki told EW. “I know personally that when you lose someone, the desire to converse with them, to find them instantly, is so real and so I found it incredibly moving.”

In the scene featuring Debicki and West, which takes place on a plane carrying the prince from Paris to the United Kingdom, Diana thanks Charles for traveling to see her body in hospital, describing it as “so raw, broken and beautiful”. I’ll take this with me.”

“You know, I loved you so much,” Diana continues, crying. “So deeply, so painfully too. It’s over now. It will be easier for everyone since I’m gone.”

“No, it won’t,” replies Charles, who is also crying.

“It will,” Diana insisted. “Admit it, you’ve had that thought before.”

“The only thought I’ve had since the moment I heard is regret,” Charles says.

“It will pass,” Diana said.

“No, it won’t,” Charles said, ending the exchange. He is then seen looking at a now empty seat.

Debicki describes filming the scene with West as “devastating, really devastating, one of the saddest things I’ve ever filmed as an actor.” I remember sitting down, and we didn’t rehearse it, and they just ran the cameras and what you did. see, it’s almost like the first or second take of our two works… I found it incredibly moving. We, in a funny way as humans, probably experienced our own sort of meta-feeling of grief, and then we were able to channel that into the characters. Dom was so heartbreaking for me in that scene. You don’t really see it in the take but we were both crying after every take, having to kind of wipe up all the tears and start the cameras. once again. So, yes, it was a difficult time. ”

Part 1 of The crown season 6 is now streaming on Netflix. The second part begins on December 14.

Register for Weekly Entertainmentthe free daily newsletter to get the latest TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars and much more.

Related content: