The Crown's Josh O'Connor Doesn't Want to Ask Prince Charles About Princess Diana or Camilla
The Crown has a way of turning republicans into royalists. When Olivia Colman stepped into Queen Elizabeth's sensible, block-heeled shoes, it changed her perspective on the royal family.
"The thing is, I was always a republican, but I have to say I’ve become completely obsessed with the Queen," she told The Sunday Times earlier this year. "I’ve become a lefty monarchist, and there’s not many of them about. Who could stick with something like that for so long, quietly and with such humility?"
Similarly, showrunner Peter Morgan's anti-monarchist stance has also shifted over the course of his involvement with the show.
"I came at it as completely anti-monarchist and I’ve turned around utterly. I’m a royalist now," he said in an interview with Radio Times.
But Josh O'Connor, who plays a young Prince Charles in season three of the popular Netflix series, isn't willing to go that far just yet.
"I wouldn't say I've done a U-turn, but before I did this job, I would describe myself as a republican, and now I would say I'm probably a republican with deep sympathy and respect for the Queen and Prince Charles," he tells Town & Country.
"I grew up in a family that felt indifferent towards the royal family. Ultimately my job is to have empathy for the characters I play, and so it's my job to feel empathetic towards Prince Charles. I think he's done an incredible job in an incredibly hard role."
The third season of The Crown certainly offers a deeply sympathetic perspective on the Prince of Wales. It paints Charles as an outsider even within his own family, often at odds with his mother, and with little agency over the course of his own life.
"It is sympathetic, but you know, he's flawed as well. It's a difficult situation for him because ultimately, the Queen's not wrong when she says duty comes first. So that's a tricky dynamic. But I think certainly, my aim was for people to feel an understanding of the predicament that Charles is in, which is a really difficult one and profound one," O'Connor says.
"The emotional significance of a son waiting for his mother to die for his life to take meaning? That’s quite bold."
In fact, the "end goal" of his performance, he tells me, would be to have his republican siblings say that they too "feel sorry for Prince Charles."
In recent years, 29-year-old O'Connor has become a familiar face in the world of TV period dramas, appearing on popular shows like The Durrells in Corfu, Peaky Blinders, and Les Misérables. "Maybe people think I look a little bit like I’m from a different time," he suggests.
He also says he enjoys the preparation that comes with a historical role like that of Prince Charles.
"I did a fair amount of research. There's a lot of footage and recordings of his voice, and there is lots of imagery, where you can kind of recreate his posture," he tells me over the phone.
"But, ultimately there's only so much research you can do. I tend to go back to the script and try and work with what exists in our story, and what Peter Morgan's creation is."
O'Connor took riding lessons to imitate Charles's polo-playing skill, and like his character, he learned some Welsh, a task which he says was "quite difficult." He was also already well-versed in tongue-twisters from drama school, so that scene in Prince Charles's tutor Edward Millward's office wasn't too difficult to recreate.
But all that said, it seems O'Connor still has at least one question about his character. And when posed with the hypothetical opportunity to speak with the future king personally, O'Connor wouldn't want to inquire about his past affairs, or his perspective on modern day politics. No, he'd want to ask about eggs.
"I'd probably ask Prince Charles if it's true that he has a boiled egg with everything that he eats," O'Connor tells me.
"Rumor has it, he doesn't eat lunch and whenever he eats, he'll always have a boiled egg. It doesn't matter what it is. So I'd kind of like to ask. I want to know the truth of that," he says. "I wouldn't ask him anything about Diana. I wouldn't ask him anything about Camilla. I just want to know about the boiled egg."
Camilla, of course, makes her Crown debut in the back half of season three, played brilliantly by Emerald Fennell, but Diana won't appear until the show returns for season four. And according to O'Connor, the next chapter in Charles's story might be less than sympathetic.
"I don't want to give anything away, but I'll say that hopefully, people will feel sorry for Charles in season three, and then, maybe, we'll change that in season four," he says, choosing his words carefully.
"Certainly, it feels like there's a definite shift being told in season three. And all across four, there's definitely a different side to Charles that we're going to see."
The Crown's third season is available to stream in its entirety on Netflix.
Watch the trailer for the season below:
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