Elizabeth Debicki Says She Originally Auditioned for A Different Role in ‘The Crown’ Before Being Cast as Princess Diana

Elizabeth Debicki wasn’t planning on playing Princess Diana when she auditioned for The Crown.

The 33-year-old actress joined the cast of the show for season five, playing Diana as she navigated her tumultuous relationship with Prince Charles.

But in a new interview with Deadline published on Wednesday (June 21), Elizabeth revealed that she had originally sought a different role in the show.

“I auditioned for a small part in Season 2,” she explained, adding that she had been interested in one of the smaller roles in that season.

“I went in and auditioned for it, and did not get that part, but they saw something Diana-y in the audition, unintentionally. So, a combination of me doing bad acting and somehow good acting at the same time,” Elizabeth continued.

“They called my agent, saying, ‘Not that part, but we’d like to keep her in the Diana-mix,’ which was about 4,000 years down the road. So, I thought, ‘Oh, well, better luck next time.’ I had hoped, as one does, especially in the beginning of your career, when people say things all the time. They would say, ‘You know what? You would be amazing in this or that,’ and there’s a piece of you that hopes it’s going to come to fruition. But you don’t really let yourself believe it, because then you’d be constantly shattered by a sense of rejection,” she said.

Elizabeth said she moved on and had forgotten about The Crown, but “about four or five years later, they actually came back around, and they said, ‘Oh yeah, you’ve always been the person that we had in mind. Would you be interested?’ By that point, Emma [Corrin] had already been cast and they had begun to shoot Season 4 Diana. I remember hearing about Emma being cast, and thinking, again, ‘Oh well, better luck next time.’ Because I didn’t know how many seasons they were intending to do.”

She continued, “That’s how it happened. It’s a strange road to what has ended up being the most amazing job of my career, and yeah, did not see it coming really, although I had hoped it would come.”

She also refused to share the original role she auditioned for, because “the person who ended up playing it was amazing.” Elizabeth added that by the time she was offered the role of Diana, she had become a big fan of the series.

“Because Season 1 had just come out a week or two before, and I had binged the whole thing. My friend Vanessa [Kirby] was playing Princess Margaret, and it was like this huge television event, Season 1 of The Crown. It was so lush and beautiful and expensive, and everyone was doing such good acting. I was like, ‘Holy hell, this is the best TV I’ve ever seen.’ When they said, ‘Come in and do it,’ I said, ‘Absolutely,” she recalled.

Earlier this month, it was confirmed that two actors would return to The Crown for a special tribute to Queen Elizabeth. Find out who here.