‘I’m obsessed with her’: Kristen Stewart talks playing Princess Diana in Spencer
While speculation over whether the Queen watches The Crown rarely abates, the Royals as a rule say they don’t watch fiction based on their lives
But that doesn’t stop actors worrying about how their performances will be judged by the Royal family, and indeed impact on their legacy.
In Spencer, Pablo Larrain’s highly anticipated new film about Diana, Kristen Stewart hopes Princes William and Harry might forgive any sense of invasion (when it comes to seemingly endless TV and film portrayals of their mother) because of a governing sense of empathy in how she approached the role.
Stewart says she is ‘obsessed’ with the princess. Pic: STX Entertainment
“I’m obsessed with her – I love her so much,” Stewart told Sky News.
“We came to this with a lot of curiosity, and they’ve [William and Harry] endured that curiosity worldwide their whole lives, and so I’m sure that they’re used to it, but it’s not their favourite thing.
“But having said that, it is sort of their jobs and I can relate to that.
“I think that you can see that in the both of them, they are, seemingly from the outside, very different people that are kind of forging a path, and that’s her I see her in them and that could sound really kooky – I’m sure that that sounds crazy to them.
The media scrutiny Kristen Stewart faced over her Twilight years was on an arguably on an unprecedented scale.
Perhaps not on a par with that Princess Diana endured, but still making Stewart, potentially the one of the best castings of the people’s princess to date.
The film is set over the course of weekend at Sandringham. Pic: STX Entertainment
“People always say ‘what do you do when people take your picture? You’re an actress’, it’s like, through my bedroom window,” says the 31-year-old.
While Stewart accepts she has a level of understanding when it comes to being hounded by the press, the comparison between her experience and Diana’s is limited.
“It’s difficult to compare because… she was a figurehead… Her job was to kind of uphold that ideal. I’m allowed to make mistakes and choices, and therefore the pictures feel invasive, sure, but just less… I feel very lucky to not have a crushing responsibility to be a certain way.
“I’m constantly asked moral questions in interviews, and it’s not my job to be right or wrong about things and teach people.
“I’m not a queen, I’m not a princess – it must have been heavy, and it’s like the fact that they’re able to make that choice.”
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As the latest in a long line of actresses to play Diana from Naomi Watts to Emma Corrin, this is unlikely to be the last film made about Diana, as the level of interest in female royal “rebels” – whether Princess Diana or Meghan Markle – remains relentless, perhaps because they encapsulate the challenges in being a woman standing up to authority.
Stewart admits the captivation is beyond her, but maybe everyone just loves the one who dares to rock the boat.
“There are people that don’t want things to change. They do, and everyone falls in a different side. I think people have been curious about the royal family forever, the adjacent kind of celebrity of it all. There’s also a sort of hunger for that… we want things to look up to, we want aspiration, and that’s a hefty load to carry.
“I completely understand why people are so curious, it’s fascinating”.
Spencer will premiere at the London Film Festival and is released in cinemas across the UK on 5 November.
The past 12 months have been the gift that’s kept on giving when it comes to newly-coined words and phrases entering our lexicon.
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Entertainment
Dayle Haddon: Former Sports Illustrated model dies of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning
Dayle Haddon – the actor, activist and former Sports Illustrated model – has died from what authorities believe was carbon monoxide poisoning.
Authorities found the 76-year-old dead in a second-floor bedroom on Friday morning after emergency dispatchers were notified about a person unconscious at the house in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania.
A 76-year-old man, later identified as Walter J Blucas, of Erie, is in a critical condition.
Responders detected a high level of carbon monoxide in the property.
Investigators believe the leak was caused by “a faulty flue and exhaust pipe on a gas heating system”.
As a model, Haddon appeared on the covers of Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Esquire in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the 1973 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
She also appeared in about two dozen films from the 1970s to 1990s, including 1994’s Bullets Over Broadway, starring John Cusack.
Haddon (left) with Angela Merkel and Christine Lagarde (right) during a meeting of the Gender Equality Advisory Council. Pic: AP
Haddon left modelling after giving birth to her daughter, Ryan, in the mid-1970s, but then had to re-enter the workforce after her husband’s 1991 death.
This time, she found the modelling industry far less friendly: “They said to me, ‘At 38, you’re not viable’,” Haddon told The New York Times in 2003.
Read more on Sky News:
Olivia Hussey, star of 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, dies at 73
Working for an advertising agency, she began reaching out to cosmetic companies, telling them there was a growing market to sell beauty products to aging baby boomers.
She eventually landed a contract with Clairol, followed by Estee Lauder and then L’Oreal, for which she promoted the company’s anti-aging products for more than a decade.
She also hosted beauty segments for CBS’s The Early Show.
In 2008, Haddon founded WomenOne, an organisation aimed at advancing educational opportunities for girls and women in marginalised communities, including in Rwanda, Haiti and Jordan.
Read more on Sky News:
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Haddon’s daughter, Ryan, said in a social media post that her mother was “everyone’s greatest champion. An inspiration to many”.
“A pure heart. A rich inner life. Touching so many lives. A life well lived. Rest in Light, Mom,” she said.
Actress Olivia Hussey, best known for playing Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 production of Romeo and Juliet, has died aged 73.
She died peacefully at her home in California, surrounded by her loved ones on Friday, according to a post shared on her official Instagram account.
The message, posted with a sunset photo of Hussey in her youth, paid tribute to “a remarkable person whose warmth, wisdom, and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her”.
It went on: “Olivia lived a life full of passion, love, and dedication to the arts, spirituality, and kindness towards animals”.
Calling her a “truly special soul”, her family said while her “immense loss” was grieved, they would also “celebrate Olivia’s enduring impact on our lives and the industry”.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1951 to an Argentinian father and English mother, Hussey returned to London aged seven with her mother and studied at the Italia Conti Academy drama school.
Spotted by Italian director Zeffirelli in a stage show of The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie opposite Vanessa Redgrave, Hussey’s performance as Juliet aged just 15 made her a star and won her a Golden Globe.
Sixteen-year-old actor Leonard Whiting played her Romeo, with the pair going on to sue Paramount Pictures in 2022 for sexual abuse due to the Oscar-nominated movie’s nude scene.
(L-R) Franco Zeffirelli, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting in 1968. Pic: AP/Eustache Cardenas
The case was dismissed by a judge the following year.
Hussey would work with Zeffirelli again, playing the Virgin Mary in the 1977 TV miniseries Jesus Of Nazareth.
Appearances in horrors including Black Christmas and Psycho prequel Psycho IV: The Beginning established Hussey as a scream queen over the years.
Other notable appearances included Hercule Poirot movie Death On The Nile and Mother Teresa biography Madre Teresa.
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Hussey was reunited with Whiting in the 2015 British film Social Suicide, which was loosely based on Shakespeare‘s Romeo and Juliet.
Her daughter, actress India Eisley, played her on-screen daughter in the movie.
It was Hussey’s final screen role, according to IMDB.
Hussey leaves behind three children, Alex, Max, and India, her husband of 35 years David Glen Eisley, and grandson, Greyson.
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