Were you given all of the scripts for the series beforehand or was it while you were in production, you would get a new script a few weeks before filming each episode? How did that process work out on this?
It’s interesting, so different from [other TV series I’ve done]. Before we shot every series, we had every single episode up front. Obviously they change as time goes on because [Peter Morgan] is the showrunner and he is watching what we’re doing. He sees something and goes, “Oh, that’s interesting, I like what I’m seeing between that person and that person.” Or he might go, “Oh, hang on. They haven’t got that part quite right. We need to add something in to help the audience understand it.” All those kinds of things, so there’s always an element of change. On the whole, we know what our story arc is, where we’re going, what we’re doing from the first day of shooting, which never happens. That’s pretty amazing.
I’ve talked to some of the actors this season and they actually prefer not to know, especially if it’s more than five episodes. They like to go on the journey themselves and explore the character. Did you prefer it this way?
Well, yeah. We’re shooting out of sequence. If I hadn’t have known that, it would have been awful. We all need to know that. I couldn’t imagine shooting it and not knowing whether we’re coming or going. I think having the script meant that we were ready to shoot like that. Because it’s a very location-based show, we were able to shoot it so that we could be shooting anything from the first episode in the same day. You have to do some mental gymnastics ever so slightly. It really helped me anyway.
Was there any scene in particular that when you read the extended script, that you were like, “Oh, wow. This is the most important scene for me to nail?”
No. I felt that they were all really important. I think they were more to me of the whole show, it was getting the character and the voice and the movements and getting all that right. That was the bigger job to me. Her life from the point of her father’s death was a complete shock, as it first is. She was completely trying to find her bearings at all possible moments and figure out where she sat and what she was doing. I think for me, it was much more about observing and experiencing that, while also remembering to get all the technical elements and all that right. All that sort of thing.
I apologize for this question, sort of cliché, but is there one scene, at least from the first season, you’re most proud of at least for your performance? That you’re like, “Wow, I was really happy with it?”
Not so much happy, but the scene between me and Phillip where I confront him in episode nine, I think, is about whether he’s actually ever loved me really and whether he’s been jealous. I think he’s being ridiculous. I just felt I really responded to that sequence and I really felt what she was trying to say. I did not enjoy doing it, but I felt satisfied doing it. You know what I mean? Well I didn’t go, “Wow, that was great,” but I just really felt like I know when it’s been good for me, but I don’t remember what I’ve done. If I don’t have any memory of what I’ve just done, it just means that I was there and I wasn’t thinking too much or worrying where the camera was or thinking about lunch. I was present in that moment and alive, I suppose.
Are you shooting the second season now, right?
It’s the last day tomorrow.
Oh, I didn’t realize.
I know, I know. It’s a miracle I’m not just crying.
Wait, you’re coming back for one more season, right? Am I wrong?
No, that’s it. That’s it. We’re gone.
Oh my gosh.
I know. We’re done.
Aww. Well, hope you can find a way to enjoy it!
Oh, great. Cheers, thank you very much.
The first season of “The Crown” is now available on Netflix.