‘The Crown’ Stars on Bringing a Modern Queen Elizabeth II & Prince Philip to the Screen

The Crown has returned with a new Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip as Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce take on the coveted roles.

Unlike past seasons of the Netflix hit from Peter Morgan, this chapter follows the British royal family during a highly-publicized period in their lives, and while there’s a lot of real-life material to provide inspiration, it made the prospect of playing the Queen that much more daunting, according to Staunton who spoke with TV Insider alongside her costar and onscreen spouse Pryce.

(Credit: Netflix)

“It was more challenging for me certainly,” Staunton acknowledges. “This is the Queen who I feel that people remember the most, and therefore, yes, that added another pressure for me, but then, you know, I had to just get on with that and not let it influence me in any way. This was just Peter Morgan’s script, this Queen at this time of her life, and therefore I spent a lot of time worrying about that and had to let it go.”

Pryce reveals that he had a little less to go off of in terms of real-life material, saying, “As far as I’m concerned, Imelda had the harder job because the Queen is an ever-present image in people’s lives, in Britain anyway, and Philip was someone who I only ever knew anything about from what I read about him in the newspapers.”

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As Season 5 unfolds, much of Prince Philip’s story takes place behind the scenes, adding to the show’s fictional drama aspect. “I never heard him speak in public or heard him make any pronouncements,” adds Pryce. “So he was always a kind of an enigma.” See the full interview with the stars, above, for larger peek behind the curtain and where things could be headed in Season 6.

The Crown, Season 5, Streaming now, Netflix