'The Crown' season 3: Can Peter Morgan keep the spark alive for the British Royal family with a new cast?
As 'The Crown' is getting a season renewal with an altogether new cast, Queen Elizabeth II's reign through the years 1964 to 1970 will come into the spotlight. While the mystery of what ensues in season three continues to build up, it is yet to be seen whether the new line-up of actors can live up to the performances of the original cast.
Bidding farewell from the show, actors Claire Foy, Matt Smith, Elleen Atkins, Pip Torrens and Vanessa Kirby have passed the baton to Olivia Colman, Tobias Menzies, Helena Bonham Carter, Marion Bailey and Jason Watkins.
How easy will it be to picture the new actors in the same milieu considering the previous cast had already become the distinctive 'faces' of the British royal family? Well, showrunner Peter Morgan has taken a difficult task at hand and it will be interesting to see how he implements it. One smart move, however, is that the new set of actors seem to have been chosen quite carefully as to make them look quite similar to their real-life counterparts.
Foy did a spectacular job of painting Queen Elizabeth II's character on the screen and as she transfers the burden of the crown to Colman, her portrayal will be at the centre of attention. Not only did Foy win hearts, she also clinched a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for the role. Hence, for Colman, it will be a hard row to hoe. In a statement, the actor said: "I think Claire Foy is an absolute genius. She's an incredibly hard act to follow. I'm basically going to rewatch every episode and copy her."
It is no different for the other actors. Menzies said he "closely listened to Prince Philip speaking; It’s partly a technical thing: you want to sound and look like him, but move like him too. I’ve gone slightly crazy just listening to him and listening to him."
Meanwhile, in an exclusive interview with MEA WorldWide, Bailey—who takes on the role of Queen Mother from Victoria Hamilton—revealed: "I read everything I could lay my hands on and tried to watch as much footage that I could find online. YouTube makes life a lot easier. Sadly, there are very few recordings of the Queen Mother speaking, but I tried to track down what little there is."
She also disclosed she would listen to 'Whispering Grass' by the Inkspots, which she read somewhere was one of Queen Mother's favourites before going on set.
As gruelling it is for the actors, the show creators must be going through the same grind, especially to create the same setting and feel with totally different personalities. In an interview with Variety, Morgan said, "If the show’s a success and we continue in season 3 and 4 we’ll have to recast completely and that I’m nervous about. As she gets older I’ll have to have other actors take over. That will make me nervous about finding who’s good, who’s bad. Now I could write for any of them immediately. Of course then you’d be finding new actors who’d be bringing new rhythms to the speech. New inflections, new strengths and weaknesses."
Clear about the fact that he didn't want to age the actors with makeup, he added, "They would look ridiculous. It would be wrong. What’s so beautiful about Claire is her youth. You can’t ask someone to act middle-aged. Someone has to bring their own fatigue to it. The feelings we all have as 50 year olds are different than the feelings we all have as 30-year-olds. That informs everything we do. It [the series] is about the second half of the 20th century. It’s about learning things. It’s about a time we can’t get back."
Time will tell if 'The Crown' gets to the top or goes downhill with the jump for the British royal family in seasons three and four.