Elizabeth Debicki 'destined' to play Princess Di

The role of Princess Diana has been playing over in the Australian actress’s mind for some time after a chance to audition for a small part in season two. Despite not thinking she was a physical match, Debicki jumped at it.

Gregory Harris for Vogue

The role of Princess Diana has been playing over in Debicki’s mind for some time after a chance to audition for a small part in season two. Despite not thinking she was a physical match, Debicki jumped at it.

The controversy-courting season five of The Crown has remained the No.1 show on Netflix for the past two weeks, not least because  its Australian star Elizabeth ­Debicki is captivating as Princess Diana reincarnated.

After winning an AACTA for her breakout role in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby at 21, the Paris-born, Melbourne-raised and London-based actor became a water-cooler obsession courtesy of The Night Manager, and when Vogue Australia caught up with her for its December cover, she was in Mallorca, Spain, filming season six of the smash-hit series.

“I was a huge fan of The Crown because my dear friend Vanessa Kirby played Margaret in the first two seasons, so we all watched it,” recalls the 32-year-old.

 “It was so luscious, well-made, and cinematic.”

“I remember the first camera test we did,” says Dominic West, who plays Prince Charles in seasons five and six. “I was terrified. She came in looking just like Princess Di and sounding just like Princess Di, and I walked in dressed up as Charles. I don’t look anything like him and I don’t really sound anything like him either. I’ve got little legs like him, but that’s it. So I was standing there waiting for my test and I went, ‘Oh my god, it’s uncanny’.”

Joel Edgerton, who worked opposite Debicki on The Great Gatsby, mirrors West’s experience. “I had this feeling when I met Elizabeth that she was already a movie star. (It was) like her future was somewhat solidified for a long and great path. She had set the bar high early, and it’s  remained that way ever since.”

Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Debicki, and Joel Edgerton in The Great Gatsby.

As it turns out, the role of Princess Diana has been playing over in Debicki’s mind for some time after a chance to audition for a small part in season two. Despite not thinking she was a physical match, Debicki jumped at it.

“I stumbled my way through about half of the audition and they very, very politely were like, ‘Okay, thank you so much for coming, bye.’ I was  miserable.”

Little did she know they had seen something at that audition and had taken it to The Crown’s creator Peter Morgan, igniting a wider discussion about Diana for five years down the line.

“I heard about it,” she says, “but being the wise and cynical person I am, I thought, ‘Well, I don’t know how many eggs I’m going to put in that basket’.”

As the world ruminates on season five, production on season six is in overdrive after a respectful pause for the death of the  Queen. “We had just gotten to Barcelona,” she recalls. “Of course, we paused, which was the right thing to do. It was very surreal, very sad for everybody. I suddenly felt very homesick,” she says, referring to her parents, and younger brother and sister in Melbourne. “I could tell it was really hard for people to be away from their families,” she adds, explaining that 95 per cent of The Crown’s crew are English.

“I spent a lot of time watching that queue,” she says of the line to visit the monarch Lying-in-State. “It was very moving.”

For half a decade, Debicki has been quietly compiling references on her phone that’s helped mould her interpretation of Diana. “A very wide collage in your brain starts, a slightly strange database because I love research,” she says. “At school, I was very, very good at humanities subjects and terrible at maths and science – a walking cliche.” (In fact, she was dux of Melbourne’s Hunting­tower School.) 

​She lights up over Diana’s revenge wardrobe and her many, many wigs. “Playing Diana has given me a history of hairdressing,” she says, detailing the “terrible” 90s cap to foil highlights and balayage​. “People just really care about making sure it’s as accurate as we can get it. Sometimes things feel like a big unformed slab of clay and then all this moulding happens and then there’s this ­moment where it just clicks in and the person, the character appears. That was very satisfying. And that happened with each wig.”

The December issue of Vogue Australia starring Elizabeth Debicki is on sale December 5.