The Crown season six part two is right around the corner, and fans are particularly excited as it introduces Kate Middleton to the show, and explores the beginning of the Prince and Princess of Wales’s relationship after meeting at university. Meg Bellamy was cast as Kate Middleton - but what did it take to turn her into the royal?
Speaking about his work as the casting director on the show, Robert explained: "On something like The Crown you’re sent a script, you work out what ages they are, what versions they are, and think of who would be a good person for it… you’re taking it all the way through the process, auditioning people, and doing their deals and contracts."
Listen to our A Right Royal Podcast The Crown special
But how long did it take to find Meg Bellamy and Ed McVey? "Ages," Robert explained. "We looked high and low. We spent six months looking for Kate and William. We started with those two and then did Harry afterwards. We weren’t under any pressure to cast anyone particularly famous, we wanted to discover somebody, it’s exciting to discover somebody and put new faces out there!
© Karwai Tang"And you’re looking at teenagers so they’re not going to have a load of acting experience… we looked at schools and social media, we didn’t go down the drama school route - and that’s how we found most of them!"
© GettyMeg also worked with the show’s movement coach, Polly Bennett, who opened up about her work. She explained: "As a movement coach, I work with actors predominantly. I also choreograph but that's normally with dancers. When I'm movement coaching, I'm working with actors to create the physical life, the physical world of their character."
The Crown season five recap
© The Crown- Prince Charles and Princess Diana marriage breakdown
Season five began with Princess Diana devastated that their second honeymoon was halted abruptly by Princes Charles.
- "Queen Victoria Syndrome"
Prince Charles met with the Prime Minister after a published poll about the public's opinion of the monarchy. The idea of The Prince's Trust was born.
- Princess Diana In Her Own Words
Princess Diana was approached by journalist Andrew Morton to write the book, In Her Own Words.
- Annus Horribilis
The Queen's 'Annus Horribilis' was in 1992 following a fire at Windsor Castle, and the breakdown of two of her son's marriages.
- An intercepted phone call makes the news
A phone call between Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles was intercepted by journalists and published in a newspaper.
- Panorama Interview
The infamous and now suspect Panorama interview with Princess Diana by Martin Bashir aired much to the royal family's dismay.
© Keith Bernstein/NetflixSpeaking about helping Meg prepare for the role of Kate at university, she explained: "It was a personal thing for me where I was like, this is a slightly odd experience! I’m a similar age to them so I was looking at my adolescence at history. I’ve worked on the rest of The Crown and it was something in the distance, so that was quite strange.
© Netflix"It was a little more challenging because their behaviour was a little less scrutinised, we don’t have a lot of footage of Kate Middleton prior to her being married, so there’s a bit more imaginative work to imagine why she moves the way that she does. We all move in different ways based on our experiences and how we’ve grown up and what sports we’ve done. The idea that she was a sportswoman at university means that she has a bounce and can reach people, which is where her popularity comes from.
© NetflixShe added: "It’s about taking what we can see from all the physical evidence that we have of these people that already exist and turning it into practical thoughts for actors to use when they're on set, dealing with script changes and all that sort of stuff, and to have a vocabulary so that they have a character that they're not necessarily doing an impression, they're doing an authentic interpretation of somebody."
