The Crown Star’s Honest Reaction To Season 6’s Tensest Scene: ‘Oh, God, No’

Summary:

• The Crown was the Netflix period drama that explored the life of the British royal family from the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II's reign.
• The show was praised for its quality in the first 4 seasons, but became controversial in the last 2 seasons.
• Dominic West, who portrayed Prince Charles in seasons 5 and 6 of the show, recalled his own most emotional reaction to the script.

Not all shows are able to maintain quality throughout their entire run. As upsetting as that is for fans, when a show hits the 5-year mark, there is always a big chance that everything will go downhill. Season 5 was exactly the one where fans of Netflix's The Crown felt the change.

Though the show was never meant to be a documentary and admittedly took many creative liberties during its run, season 5 broke all records with the amount of unnecessary dramatization of an already twisted family story. A good quality drama began to slowly turn into a soap opera, and this transformation only intensified in season 6.

From all the emotional outbursts to the ghost of Princess Diana, there wasn't much to take away from the last season. The only thing that stayed the same was the brilliant performances of the cast, who were equally stressed by the scripts they were given.

The Crown Princess Diana’s Death

Of course, among all the drama that happened throughout the series, nothing was more devastating than the real-life tragedy of Princess Diana. The Crown couldn't avoid the sensitive topic in their narrative, and viewers were bracing themselves for what was to come from the very beginning of season 6.

As it turned out, it wasn't just the audience who had to mentally prepare for such emotional scenes.

Dominic West, who portrayed Diana's husband Dominic West in the last two seasons of the Netflix hit, was very apprehensive about how the story would be told from his character's perspective.

In an interview with Variety, he recalled his own reaction when he first read the script for Charles' pivotal scene:

“When I read that Peter [Morgan] had written how Charles reacts to the news of Diana — when he sees her dead, he howls with grief in the Paris hospital to the point that they could hear him outside the room — I thought, ‘Oh, God, no. Oh dear.’ <...> he obviously decided to make him very emotional, and I’m glad he did,” West shared.

"Oh, God, no" is the exact reaction many viewers had when watching the scene at home, but for a very different reason. While it's hard to blame the actor for giving the most emotional performance on our screens, the way Diana's death was handled overall left the audience in complete shock.

Whether you believe Charles' reaction to Diana's death as it was realistically portrayed in The Crown, or tend to trust less formal and sanitized versions of events, the truth will continue to be one of the most devastating mysteries of the British royal family.

If you haven't had a chance to catch up on The Crown's sixth and final season, you can stream it from start to finish on Netflix.

Source: Variety