First look at Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana in Spencer

She’s the latest actor to play Princess Diana and now this American actor has been spotted looking uncannily like the late royal.

After a string of famous faces have played the role, Kristen Stewart has made her debut as Princess Diana, looking uncannily like the late royal in Pablo Larrain’s upcoming movie Spencer.

Production unveiled the first glimpse of former Twilight star Stewart as the People’s Princess, wearing a gothic-style veil, pussy bow blouse, black hat and red coat from the Chanel autumn/winter 1988-89 collection.

While mimicking Diana’s iconic head tilt, Stewart’s outfit appears to be a direct recreation of one that Diana wore to Sandringham on Christmas Day towards the end of her marriage to Prince Charles.

Kristen Stewart is Diana, Princess of Wales, in Pablo Larraín’s Spencer. Picture: NEON

Speaking of her approach to playing Diana, Stewart said: “The accent is intimidating as all hell because people know that voice, and it’s so, so distinct and particular”.

“I’m working on it now and already have my dialect coach,” she previously told InStyle magazine.

Stewart revealed she had studied two biographies about Diana's life for the role, which has previously been played, among others, by Naomi Watts in 2013’s Diana and Emma Corrin in Netflix’s The Crown.

“I’m finishing all the material before I actually go make the movie,” Stewart said, of her research.

“It’s one of the saddest stories to exist ever, and I don’t want to just play Diana … I want to know her implicitly. I haven’t been this excited about playing a part, by the way, in so long,” she said, according to Vanity Fair.

Princess Diana. Picture: Getty Images

Larraín’s film will follow Diana in December of 1991, as her marriage to Prince Charles was falling apart. The director was also behind the Oscar-nominated film Jackie about former First Lady Jackie O.

In Spencer, Diana celebrates the Christmas holiday with the royal family at their Sandringham estate and over the course of one weekend makes the decision to leave her husband, Page Six reports.

Charles and Diana split in 1992 and their divorce was finalised in 1996, before Diana died in a car accident in 1997.

According to a studio press release, principal photography for Spencer started in Germany and the UK, and it is expected to be released later this year.

Princess Diana’s life will again be the subject of a Hollywood biopic.

The break-up dress. Princess Diana in one of her most famous LBD looks at Serpentine Gallery, London, in June 1994. Picture: Jayne Fincher/Getty Images

Kristen Stewart was a surprise choice to portray Princess Diana. Picture: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Stewart’s casting was announced in June of last year. The Twilight actor, 30, is the same age as Diana at the time the movie takes place.

“Spencer is a dive inside an emotional imagining of who Diana was at a pivotal turning point in her life,” said Stewart, in the release. “It is a physical assertion of the sum of her parts, which starts with her given name; Spencer. It is a harrowing effort for her to return to herself, as Diana strives to hold onto what the name Spencer means to her.”

Originally published as First look at Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana in Spencer