Kristen Stewart to play Princess Diana in movie on divorce with Charles, Twitter 'absolutely hates it' already
Filmmaker Pablo Larraín is casting Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana for his new film ‘Spencer’. The film will document the end of the late royal’s marriage to Prince Charles. The script of the film has been written by Steven Knight that covers a three-day drama that happened in the early ‘90s when Diana decided her marriage to Charles was not working and she should leave the British royal family.
According to a Deadline report, the production of the movie, which will be unveiled to buyers at the virtual Cannes Market by CAA Media Finance and FilmNation Entertainment, is expected to begin in early 2021. “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. 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,” Larraín said on Wednesday, June 17.
“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. We want to make a movie that goes wide, connects with a worldwide audience that is interested in such a fascinating life,” the 43-year-old told the news site.
Later, the director of ‘Neruda’ revealed his reason to title the movie ‘Spencer’. He said, “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.”
Larraín added: “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 to be an enormous amount of beauty in the power of Diana. It’s a romantic story of a woman going through difficult times who finds the light and the solution. She died years after where our story is set and so we don’t deal with that.”
Larraín also explained why he chose Stewart to play Diana as he said: “Kristen is one of the great actors around today. To do this well, you need something very important in the film, which is a mystery. Kristen can be many things, and she can be very mysterious and very fragile and 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. 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.”
However, not everyone seemed happy by Larraín’s choice of lead as one wrote on Twitter: “UM you could find a British actress”, while another joked, “Sounds great, what could possibly go wrong?”
“Kristen Stewart as lady Diana... I kind of absolutely hate it,” a third person added.