- Title: "The Crown" star says playing the Queen was her "biggest challenge"
- Date: 1st November 2016
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (NOVEMBER 1, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, MATT SMITH, ASKED ABOUT THE SCRIPT, SAYING: ''He is such a consummate writer Peter, he has got such a mastery of sort of structure and the flow of the series, but also I think what's really brilliant about it is he allows you to peek behind this royal veil that we all are aware of - we know them they are sort of ingrained in our fabric somewhere but this series sort of allows you to glimpse behind that veil and that's really engaging emotionally and interesting.'' (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, JARED HARRIS, SAYING: ''It's an imaginative exercise you do all the research and you're hoping that somewhere as you are going through all that stuff that something will fire your imagination - it is an imaginative exercise we are interpreting the characters we are not trying to impersonate them - I look nothing like him, so at some point you are playing the story that Peter has written and it's his drama and his narrative.'' (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, MATT SMITH, AND ACTRESS, CLAIRE FOY, ASKED ABOUT THE CHANGE IN MONEY BEING SPENT ON TV DRAMAS, SAYING: SMITH: ''I think everything is all sort of relative you know - I don't think you have to spend a lot of money to make something great, I think often with something like science fiction - a lot of the best sci-fi is made on a small budget because it forces you to be inventive with things like green screen and with the 'science-fictioness' of it - which is why often it's good. I think with this, what it has is great scale and great detail and I think that probably is expensive isn't it?'' FOY: ''You couldn't have made a show about this family without it, without spending money on it - you just couldn't.'' SMITH: ''The costumes have to be period correct'' FOY: ''And replicas, and have imagination...you know, the thing is about it as well, they gave such scale to it by just going to the limit of what they were possibly able to achieve - there was never an end point of well no...so often what happens in TV shows is things get dropped, as productions going on because the budget gets diminished, diminished, diminished and you suddenly go, 'Oh that scene's gone, oh that scene's gone', and what happened more in this is they were like, 'Do you know what we have just found the most extraordinary location and so we are going to do another scene there'. So you were like, 'Oh, oh, oh and you know, you would be in somewhere that you were just doing one tiny scene -and it would be this massive beautiful room." SMITH: ''Just a long way a way.'' FOY: ''4 hours away, It was amazing for that.''
- Embargoed: 15th November 2016 16:13
- Keywords: Jared Harris Matt Smith Claire Foy drama Netflix royal Queen Elizabeth The Crown
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Television
- Reuters ID: LVA00656M64WD
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A young Princess Elizabeth ascending to the British throne is the focus of new Netflix series "The Crown", a royal drama looking at the early reign of the UK's longest serving monarch.
Set in post-World War Two 1947 Britain, the show begins with Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten's wedding before the princess inherits the crown at age 25 when her father King George VI dies.
British actress Claire Foy, who starred in drama "Wolf Hall" last year, plays Elizabeth and "Dr Who" actor Matt Smith portrays her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.
"I think you already know what the limits are and what you have to achieve in a way," Foy told Reuters about taking on the daunting role. "I felt that I had to get certain things right in order to allow for the more creative and sort of interpretive side to be legitimate really."
Netflix has invested in two seasons of "The Crown", which was written by "The Queen" scriptwriter Peter Morgan. His team of researchers went through archives, biographies, cabinet minutes and conversations Morgan had with people linked to the royal household for the show, which mixes true events with fiction for more personal moments.
Episodes feature key moments such as the queen's coronation and look at her relationship with former prime minister Winston Churchill, played by "3rd Rock from the Sun" actor John Lithgow, and her sister Princess Margaret's romance with their father's equerry Peter Townsend.
"(Morgan) allows you to peak behind this royal veil that we all are aware of...and that's really engaging emotionally and interesting," Smith said.
The 10-episode series, released on Friday, was shot in southern England, Scotland and South Africa. Media reports have cited a budget of 100 million pounds ($122 million) for the show.
"You couldn't have made a show about this family...without spending money on it," Foy said.
"I would love to think she (Queen Elizabeth) would watch it as I think she would love the coronation, I think she would love the royal wedding, I think she would love Matt's Philip...But...it's too weird to think that she would watch it." ($1 = 0.8185 pounds) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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