One of the most talked-about elements of the final section of The Crown is the portrait of King Charles of the United Kingdom, who at the time of Diana Spencer’s death was the Prince of Wales. He went from being portrayed as an insecure and mean man, envious of his wife’s ability to make the spotlight and those attending the events fall in love with him, to showing his most human and empathetic face. And, according to actor Dominic West, who plays him in the last two seasons of the Netflix series, Prince Henry’s book influenced his way of interpreting Charles.
“I’ve been reading all the newspaper articles about him since I got the job. In a way, it was a gift that he was in the headlines every day when he became king,” acknowledged West, who is competing for the Golden Globe for his work. Another gift was the memoir In the Shadow of Prince Henry, which he admits to having read: “I bought it immediately, and I think it slightly affected the way I played that key scene in which Henry wakes up.”
In the book, the fifth in line to the British crown wrote that his father told him of his mother’s death by placing his hand on her knee. “Everything will be fine,” he told her. This was an important detail for West, who was thus able to confirm that Carlos was a much closer father to his children than was suggested in the fourth or fifth season of The Crown, where he imitated the model of distant fatherhood inherited from his parents. , Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh.
Another element that marked his interpretation was the viewing of hours and hours of recordings of Carlos after Diana’s death. In his opinion, he gave the impression that he carried “the weight of the world on his back” and he looked “devastated” by the death of the mother of his children, in what he imagines was a “powerful cocktail not only of shock and mourning but also deep feelings of guilt.”
Of course, despite the influence of Enrique’s book on his way of acting as Carlos, West wanted to deny that Peter Morgan, the creator and screenwriter of The Crown, took In the Shadow as a reference: “I know that Peter didn’t read Enrique’s book. What did mark his way of writing the character in the sixth season, however, were conversations with people close to the current king of the United Kingdom, who confirmed that he was a much warmer father than he had written up to that point.
This would explain the drastic change in the character’s portrayal, which has drawn criticism for its lack of coherence. After ignoring Charles in the film The Queen he wrote, in The Crown he suddenly became the beacon of leadership of the British Royal House, which many interpreted as a way to cement the monarch on the throne and curry favor. of Buckingham. “I think it was a more honest portrayal of him,” West says of this brighter look at the king.
