I'd love to see Josh O'Connor get some award recognition for his portrayal of the Prince of Wales.
Josh O'Connor is the best thing about Season 3 of
The Crown. He definitely should be winning awards for his portrayal of the young adult Prince Charles.
Although Olivia Coleman and Helena Bonham-Carter are good actors, there's something off about their casting. HBC looks more like an older Claire Foy, and Olivia Coleman looks more like an older Vanessa Kirby. The same regarding their heights. In actuality, Margaret was smaller than the Queen, so Kirby as Margaret, being taller than Foy as the Queen was very off-putting. But Foy and Kirby rocked their portrayals in the first two seasons. Not so much HBC and Coleman in Season 3.
Foy facially has this very mesmerizing transparency with a kind of stillness that masks pent-up human emotions. Coleman just comes off as mannered and stiff, despite having a more passable resemblance to the older Queen than Foy actually has to the Queen as a young woman. The camera loves Foy's face. The camera does NOT love Coleman's face. HBC did a great job in the LBJ episode in Season 3, and the actor who plays Tony Snowden in Season 3 is very good. But overall, HBC is somewhat miscast as Princess Margaret. The actor who plays Margaret's young lover, Roddy Llewellyn, is excellent.
I miss Claire Foy and Matt Smith. Still Tobias Menzies makes an excellent older Prince Philip, and Menzies does at least have a passable resemblance to Smith. Erin Doherty also makes an excellent Princess Anne. And the actor who plays Prince Philip's mother is brilliant.
I don't think the actor who portrays Camilla is right for the role. Worse though is the dramatic license the producers took in suggesting that Princess Anne was simply having a fling with Andrew Parker-Bowles. In fact, Anne was very much in love with Parker-Bowles, but knew she couldn't marry him because he was Catholic. After Camilla married Parker-Bowles when Charles was sent away on military duty, Anne hooked up with Mark Phillips from her horsey set of friends (Phillips somewhat resembles Parker-Bowles). Anne was not that much in love with Phillips who was widely described as 'thick and wet.' Anne and Parker-Bowles have remained friendly through the years.
It was quite funny that the actor in
The Crown who fictionally introduces the Parker-Bowles character to Princess Anne, actually resembles the real Parker-Bowles more than the actor who played Parker-Bowles!!! Another inaccurate dramatization is the implication that Camilla wasn't sure whether she was in love with Charles. In all honesty, Camilla and Parker-Bowles mutually played the field in the swingin' 60s and early '70s, while on-and-off with each other. But Camilla was all-in with Charles after meeting him. If Charles had given any hint that he had a backbone and would defy his family for their love, Camilla would not have married Parker-Bowles. Charles was under-the-thumb of his family and dithered and dallied, and was ultimately persuaded to 'do his duty' and drop the idea of marrying Camilla, instead of fighting for her.
In the first two seasons, the Peter Townsend character was also woefully miscast. In real life, Townsend was a tall, lanky, boyish-looking war hero. He towered over Princess Margaret. The actor who was cast was shorter, and he looked old and stuffy, and definitely not like someone a young, impressionable Margaret would fall head-over-heels in love with. Also, Kirby over-played the unsettled rebelliousness of young Margaret. Although Margaret had been spoiled (especially by her father), she did not become flighty and rebellious until after the government, the Queen Mother and Prince Philip intruded on her happiness by forcing her to choose between her born identity as a royal princess, and the man she deeply loved.
The Princess Diana role for Seasons 5 & 6 has already been cast with Emma Corrin, who appears to be a very striking choice. I can barely wait, but we have to for quite awhile...
'The Crown' casts its Princess Diana: Emma Corrin will take on the role in season four of the Netflix drama.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
This season 4 preview of Princess Diana in Netflix's The Crown comes ahead of the season 3 premiere.
www.refinery29.com
They are the worst!
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