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The Crown: Season 5 is well under production and gearing up for a 2022 release. The latest season will see several new faces, such as Elizabeth Debicki, who is to portray Princess Diana, and most notably, the Queen herself is to be played by a new actress, Imelda Staunton. The actress is already significantly famous owing to her Dolores Umbridge role in Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix and A Confession.
Despite Imelda's long-standing history of working in films and TV shows, the actress admits that playing The Queen in The Cron is not going to be a cakewalk. The role will specifically bring forward its own set of challenges and difficulties.
Recently, the actress sat with Emma Barnet to talk on the BBC radio show, "Woman's Hour" 75th anniversary. She shared, “I think my sort of extra challenge, as if I needed it, is that I’m now doing the Queen that we’re a little more familiar with. With Claire Foy, it was almost history, and now I’m playing one that people could say ‘she doesn’t do that,’ ‘she’s not like that,’ and that’s my personal bête noire.”
Of course, now that the series is actually drawing to a timeline that is more recent, with events that are particularly etched on the minds of the audience, it can get difficult to remove reality from fiction. When asked if the series should portray a warning before every episode saying that the scenes in the episodes are only imaginary takes on real-life events of history, Staunton said that people should themselves understand the nature of a fictional series.
“I think that is up to producers and directors,” answered the actress. “This isn’t verbatim. This isn’t taken from diaries. You’ve got to use your imagination, and I’d like to allow the audience a bit of intelligence. You can’t know that’s what Margaret and Elizabeth were talking about.”
The same was asked of Netflix the past December, as the U.K. culture secretary Oliver Dowden summoned the streaming website to issue a warning stating the series to be a work of fiction. Netflix declined, stating, “We have always presented ‘The Crown’ as a drama, and we have every confidence our members understand it’s a work of fiction that’s broadly based on historical events. As a result, we have no plans and see no need to add a disclaimer.”
The actress was incredibly delighted when she landed the titular role for the series of being The Queen. Talking with Entertainment Tonight, she revealed, “I’m greatly honored” for being considered the final choice for the role by creator Peter Morgan. Appreciating her predecessors, Coleman and Clarie Foy, who portrayed the Queen's character before, Staunton added, “I don’t want to let the air go out of the balloon, and I really have to bring it home. I would love to do that for all the people who have gone before me.”
Imelda Staunton also believes that the T.V. world is presently in its 'golden age,' as she stated, “There’s so much wonderful stuff being made and written. I feel very grateful that I've been in this particular piece and able to get this story out there.”
Talking with Variety, when the series was yet to begin its production last year in July, the actress had shared how she was rallying up herself to take on the intimidating role. She shared that she was getting to know the essence of her role, as she revealed, "Olivia Coleman finished filming Series 4 about a week before lockdown, can you believe it? So they managed to get that in the can. I’m slowly and quietly getting on with it, reading and listening and doing all that stuff."
The role is a little more out of the box than usual because not only does Imelda Staunton have to take after two actresses who have already done their work with blazing magnificence, but also work on a figure who is already so keenly watched by people around the globe. Fortunately enough, Staunton is one of the people who paid attention to the Queen, and hence, she knows the best way to tackle the character.
"Well, I’ve seen them," she said about the previous actresses before continuing, "and I’ve seen the real Queen over all these years. So I’ve got good research not only in the drama show but in her real life. So I’m not spoiled for choice there. And everything’s bloody daunting.' She added, "I’m sure it was very daunting for Claire Foy to start it. For all three of us to go, “Please, don’t drop the baton!” It’s the royal relay. So I have my work cut out for me, and it’s terrifying and exciting and a huge responsibility, and I can’t wait."
What is more fascinating is that Imelda Staunton has already met the Queen in real life, and that is not all of it. "I actually sang at her 90th birthday, and we were invited to a tea for all the performers, and she was there," she proclaimed. "I think the first time I met her was in 1986. She came to see a show I was doing. The Queen Mother actually came a couple of times to shows I did. I met her at a ceremony when I got the OBE, and William gave me the CBE."
Playing a figurehead she has already met in person is not an easy job, and the actress agrees. "It is weird to think I’ll be doing it; of course, it’s bloody weird! But it’s not my job to wonder how they’ll do it. It’s just my job to try and turn in some sort of bloody believable performance," said Staunton.
When Imelda Staunton was first announced as the successor for The Queen in the series, she shared, “I have loved watching The Crown from the very start. As an actor, it was a joy to see how both Claire Foy and Olivia Colman brought something special and unique to Peter Morgan’s scripts. I am genuinely honored to be joining such an exceptional creative team and to be taking The Crown to its conclusion.”
The series was then only renewed for one last season, season 5, but some time ago, Netflix announced that The Crown will go on for season 6, the series finale, and Imelda Staunton will continue to portray the Queen in it.
