Fans of the hit Netflix series The Crown may not agree, but Elizabeth Debicki – who played the late Princess Diana in the last two seasons – believes the series should never have been continued.
In an exclusive interview with PeopleThe Emmy-nominated actress said she felt the show “ended in the right place.”
“I think it respected its own cycle in some ways,” she told the publication. “It always kind of knew where it was going, and I think also the writing from (creator) Peter (Morgan) gave the impression that it understood its own ending in some ways. It’s very delicate, I think.”
The actress also praised Morgan for her “amazing work” in “bringing such a tremendous journey to an end” after the sixth and final season.
“I don’t really like the word journey, but it was a big journey for people,” she continued. “If you’re going to watch six seasons of a show, it has to have a decent ending.”
Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana in “The Crown”.
(Image credit: Netflix)
As for the final season of the hit series – which had the difficult task of following the last days of the life of the late Princess of Wales before she died in a tragic car crash in 1997 – Debicki believes the series was “very respectful”.
“I know the depth and intensity of the conversations about how the show should end was tremendous, and I thought it was really kind of sensitive and elaborately done,” the actress explained. “I think everyone’s performance this season is really great. I know I’m biased because it’s my show, but I think everyone did a really incredible job.”
One of the reasons for the show’s success on the streaming service, says Debicki, is that the series is “very conscious of what it is.”
“It doesn’t try to hide the fact that it’s a drama and that it’s a television drama,” she explained. “So I like that kind of self-awareness and the use of those devices. It really appeals to me from a dramaturgical point of view, but also as an audience.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
In the same interview, the actress admitted that although she felt it ended at exactly the right time, it was not easy for her to leave her character and her peculiarities behind.
“My voice has changed quite a bit and I had to kind of consciously bring it back to my own voice, what my voice wants to match, and also my own accent,” she told the publication at the time. “I had to work so hard to get the voice that it was so ingrained in me that I had to turn the wheel back.”
Debicki further explained that she continued to imitate the beloved princess “long” after the show ended, adding that to optimally transform into the queen, she had to do “quite a lot physically too,” including “a lot of head tilting.”
“Someone said to me, ‘I think that’s what you do when you try to convince people of something.’ When someone said, ‘You can’t go about it like that,'” she continued. “I caught myself saying, ‘Are you sure?’ And then I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m slipping into this.'”
“I have now left that,” she added, “but I had to do it consciously.”
