Kristen Stewart’s casting as Princess Diana set social media ablaze when it was announced back in June.
And the actress has admitted she’s nervous about taking on the role in new movie Spencer, especially the task of mastering the late princess’ accent.
Kristen, 30, will star in Spencer, which will dramatise a ‘critical’ weekend in the early 1990s, when Diana decided that her marriage to Prince Charles wasn’t working.
Royal role: Kristen Stewart’has admitted she’s nervous about taking on the role of Princess Diana in new movie Spencer, especially the task of mastering the late princess’ accent
In a new interview with InStyle, the actress gushed that she hasn’t been ‘this excited about playing a part, by the way, in so long.’
Kristen added though that there is one thing characteristic she’s desperate to master, admitting: ‘The accent is intimidating as all hell because people know that voice, and it’s so, so distinct and particular’.
‘I’m working on it now and already have my dialect coach.’
Kristen also revealed that she’s been working hard on her research before filming starts next year, telling the magazine:
Tough: In a new interview with InStyle, the actress admitted: ‘The accent is intimidating as all hell because people know that voice, and it’s so, so distinct and particular’
‘In terms of research, I’ve gotten through two and a half biographies, and I’m finishing all the material before I actually go make the movie.’
‘It’s one of the saddest stories to exist ever, and I don’t want to just play Diana – I want to know her implicitly.’
The intriguing casting choice caused a social media storm back in June when the movie was first announced, with many asking why a British actress wasn’t chosen to play the role.
‘Plenty of British actresses who would have been better for this role, Princess Diana was classy, Kristen is not. They don’t even look alike,’ one tweet read, and one simply said: ‘Kristen Stewart playing Princess Diana is wrong on so many levels.’
Princess: Kristen also revealed that she’s been working hard on her research before filming starts next year, telling the magazine: I’ve gotten through two and a half biographies’
Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín defended his decision to cast the American actress in the role, telling Deadline: ‘Kristin is one of the greatest actors around today.’
Pablo directed Natalie Portman in the 2016 Jackie Kennedy biopic Jackie, which earned the star a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
He added: ‘Kristen can be many things, and she can be very mysterious and very fragile an ultimately very strong as well, which is what we need.’
‘The combination of those elements made me think of her. The way she responded to the script and how she is approaching the character, it’s very beautiful to see. I think she’s going to do something stunning and intriguing at the same time.’
The script written by English screenwriter Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) follows the Princess of Wales realising she ‘needed to veer from a path that put her in line to one day be queen.’
The story is said to take place over three days during one of Diana’s final Christmases at the House of Windsor in their Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England.
Depiction: The troubled marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana will be the subject of the new film (Pictured above in Sicily British royal tour of Italy in 1985)
Pablo explained that the film will not delve into Diana’s tragic death, but instead focus on her marriage to Charles and the love she had for children Prince William and Prince Harry.
‘We decided to get into a story about identity, and around how a woman decides somehow, not to be the queen. She’s a woman who, in the journey of the movie, decides and realizes that she wants to be the woman she was before she met Charles,’ the director said.
Production on the film – titled Spencer in reference to Diana’s maiden name – is not expected to begin until early 2021.
Charles and Diana were married from July 29, 1981 to August 28, 1996, and there has been endless speculation that their union was an unhappy one.
In 2018, veteran royal reporter Robert Jobson – who toured the world with Charles – claimed Charles wanted to pull out of his wedding to Diana when he realised how ‘incompatible’ the pair were.
Diana also infamously speculated over Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker Bowles in her 1995 interview with BBC Panorama when she said: ‘Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.’
Storm: The intriguing casting choice caused a social media storm back in June when the movie was first announced, with many asking why a British actress wasn’t chosen to play the role
Support: There were also a fair share of supportive tweets from fans
At the age of just 36, Diana died in the early hours of 31 August 1997 after being injured in a car crash in a road tunnel in Paris. Her partner at the time, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene.
American actress Kristen is not the first star to play the Royal on the big screen. Oscar-nominated actress Naomi Watts played the role in the 2013 drama Diana, that focused on the last two years of her life, but was ruthlessly mocked by critics at the time.
Meanwhile newcomer Emma Corrin will play the Princess in the early years of her courtship and marriage to Charles in the fourth series of The Crown, streaming on Netflix next month.
Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki will take over from English talent Emma for the fifth series of The Crown.
Despite her work in teen movie fare with Twilight, Kristen won a supporting-actress César in 2015 for the film Cloud of Sils Maria, making her the first American actress to take home France’s most coveted acting award.