Many actors have portrayed members of the royal family throughout the years. The latest to step up to the plate will be Kristen Stewart. The 30-year-old actress will take on the role of Princess Diana in a new film.
Deadline announced the film, Spencer, on Wednesday. Pablo Larraín will direct the drama, which will focus on the weekend Diana decided to divorce Prince Charles. The whole film takes place over just three days, leading up to Diana's final Christmas with the royal family at Sandringham.
This is major news for royal fans. It will undoubtedly lead to lots of questions. Does Kristen have what it takes to channel Diana's larger-than-life public persona, juxtaposed with her immense personal pain? Who will take on the task of playing Charles? Will there be a Camilla? If it's Christmas at Sandringham, who will play the Queen? All the answers aren't out there just yet, but Kristen's casting is a serious hook.
Kristen Stewart has been cast as Princess Diana in a new film by Pablo Larraín. Pablo has dazzled audiences with his biopic capacities with Jackie starring Natalie Portman and Neruda starring Luis Gnecco. He spoke with Deadline, which broke the news of the film.
"We all grew up, at least I did in my generation, reading and understanding what a fairy tale is. Usually, the prince comes and finds the princess, invites her to become his wife and eventually she becomes queen. That is the fairy tale," Pablo said.
"When someone decides not to be the queen, and says, I'd rather go and be myself, it's a big big decision, a fairy tale upside down. I've always been very surprised by that and thought it must have been very hard to do. That is the heart of the movie."
The film follows Diana during a pivotal three days in the early 1990s. It is the weekend that Diana decided to divorce Prince Charles. The weekend culminates in Christmas at Sandringham with the royal family, the last one Diana would spend there.
"How and why do you decide to do that? It's a great universal story that can reach millions and millions of people, and that's what we want to do," Pablo said.
"We want to make a movie that goes wide, connects with a worldwide audience that is interested in such a fascinating life."
"I've always been intrigued and fascinated by the Royal Family and how things are in that culture, which we don't have where I come from," Pablo said of his own relationship to the royal fandom.
"Diana is such a powerful icon, where millions and millions of people, not just women, but many people around the world felt empathy toward her in her life. We decided to get into a story about identity, and around how a woman decides somehow, not to be the queen. She's a woman who, in the journey of the movie, decides and realizes that she wants to be the woman she was before she met Charles."
"It's about finding herself, about understanding that possibly the most important thing for her is to be well, and to be with herself and by herself," he explained.
"That's why the movie is called Spencer, which is the family name she had before she met Charles. It's very contained, set over a few days in Sandringham. They spent Christmas there for many years and that's where we set the movie in the early '90s, around 1992, we're not specific. It's Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day, three days, very contained. We get to understand what it is she wants and what she will do."
Pablo is excited to see how Kristen brings Diana to life in the film. "Kristen is one of the great actors around today," he said.
"To do this well, you need something very important in film, which is mystery. Kristen can be many things, and she can be very mysterious and very fragile an ultimately very strong as well, which is what we need."
"The combination of those elements made me think of her. The way she responded to the script and how she is approaching the character, it's very beautiful to see. I think she's going to do something stunning and intriguing at the same time. She is this force of nature."
"I've seen movies from Kristen that are so diverse it's incredible, showing different layers and her diversity and strength as an actress," he continued.
"We're very happy to have her, she's very committed. As a filmmaker, when you have someone who can hold such a weight, dramatic and narrative weight just with her eyes, then you have the strong lead who can deliver what we are looking for."
Pablo is determined to bring the team on this film together to capture the true essence of Diana in a way that honors the human side of her legacy.
"It's a very energetic and beautiful script by Steven Knight, whose work I have admired for years. It's incredible and captures what I have always found and that is an enormous amount of beauty in the power of Diana," he said.
"When she had the stage of the world and what she had to say in her own story and how strong she could be when she needed to transform herself into something different, to find her own path. It's a romantic story of a woman going through difficult times who finds the light and the solution."
Production on the film will begin in early 2021. The project will be available for buyers at the virtual Cannes market. Unlike most films or documentaries centering on Diana, this one won't touch on her death.
"She died years after where our story is set and so we don't deal with that," Pablo noted.
He says that the three days the movie will focus on are very illuminating into Diana's character.
"It's only three days of her life and in that very small amount of time, you're able to get into a wider, bigger perspective of who she was. We all know her fate, what happened to her, and we don't need to go there. We'll stay in this more intimate space where she could express where she wants to go and who she wants to be."
"The key is how she discovers during the process of the movie that what she really needs to do is be who she wants to be," he continued.
"And by that, it doesn't mean she needs to be next to anyone, to be part of anything, but herself and her own children. Diana was many things, but chief among them, she was a great mother. This is the story of a woman who understands the most important thing for a woman in her life is her own children."
