‘The Crown’ Star Emma Corrin Reveals Odd Way She Was Cast as Princess Diana

Emma Corrin has been making waves with her portrayal of the late Princess Diana in Netflix‘s critically acclaimed series The Crown, but her journey to stepping into the royal’s shoes was not a usual one. As the series prepares to begin filming on the upcoming fifth season, Corrin opened up about the truly unique way that she was cast in the series.

Corrin opened up about how she landed the coveted role while speaking with Bridgerton star Regé-Jean Page during a Variety Studio: Actors on Actors interview. The actress revealed that at the time of her casting, she was “sort of working, jobbing, trying to earn money in London.” As she was “manically running around auditioning for anything that” she could, Corrin said Nina Gold and Rob Sterne of The Crown‘s casting department asked her “to come in and help for some of the chemistry reads they were doing between Camillas, who they were auditioning.” Preliminary scenes had been written for Camilla an Diana and “they needed someone to read for Diana. So I was like, ‘OK.’” Corrin, however, clarified that “it wasn’t an audition” and she was “being paid to be there, and I wasn’t going to be on camera.”

“It’s really weird to hear in retrospect everyone’s perspective on this,” she continued. “My agent was like, ‘It’s the perfect situation because it’s going to be a no-pressure audition.’ We decided that I would just prepare as if it was an audition. And so I did, and I worked on the voice with my mum, who is a speech therapist. And then I learned the lines. And I just had fun, because I wasn’t really doing anything at the time.”

Corrin’s portrayal of Diana has been a massive success. She has already scored a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice Award for her performance, and she is considered the frontrunner to win the Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series. Her performance has also earned praise from the late royal’s voice coach, Stewart Pearce, who exclusively told PopCulture that he was “relieved the depiction of Diana’s wrought emotional state was neither trivialized nor vilified” by Corrin. Discussing her portrayal during the Variety Studio: Actors on Actors interview, Corrin said she “got the script, and I sort of had this mad realization that as much as this is Diana, this character is almost fictional. And you should treat it as such.”

Corrin is set to reprise the role in Season 5, which is set to begin filming in July. With each season of the series documenting a different decade of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, the upcoming season will document the royal family’s lives throughout the ’90s, meaning it will cover her tragic death in 1997 at the age of 36. As fans wait for the new season, which does not have a premiere date just yet, they can catch up on Seasons 1-4 on Netflix.