Emma Corrin: The role of late Princess Diana was like a ‘marriage proposal’

Emma Corrin has revealed landing the role of Princess Diana in The Crown felt like a marriage proposal in an interview with People on Friday.

The 25-year-old, who made her acting debut in season four of the Netflix drama, revealed she actually first appeared on set at the filming of season three, before she was offered the part.

Director Ben Caron and producer Suzanne Mackie wanted Emma to do a chemistry read with Josh O’Connor, who played Prince Charles in both series three and four of the programme.

The pair seemed to have impressed Ben and Suzanne, with Ben getting down on one knee to offer Emma the part.

She said of the moment: ‘I remember we did the scene a couple of times and then Ben turned to Suzanne and was like, “Can I do it now?” And he sort of got down and was like, “Will you be Diana?” It felt kind of like a marriage proposal.’

Emma of course said yes, and immediately got to work with studying the ins and outs of the People’s Princess.

The actress recalled she couldn’t get much further when just reading and watching Diana, and it wasn’t until she set to work with the choreographer Polly Bennett when she started figuring out the emotions of the royal.

‘To start with there was a lot of reading, and watching and that kind of thing,’ she says. ‘But I actually found that I sort of reached a bit of a brick wall with it.’

Her hard work paid off as it was announced that she was nominated for an Emmy last month, and she recalled the moment she found out was when she had been rehearsing for her most recently acting performance in the play Anna X. 

Emma hadn’t checked her phone all day and when she left work she was met with congratulations from her co-workers, before they let her know about her esteemed nomination.