Elizabeth Debicki Says Filming Princess Diana Paparazzi Scenes in The Crown Was Like ‘Being Underwater’ (Exclusive)

Elizabeth Debicki says she is ending her role as Princess Diana Crown came with a unique weight.

Speaking to PEOPLE ahead of the show’s season 6 premiere on Thursday, Debicki says the most difficult scenes to shoot for the Netflix drama inspired by the lives of the British royal family were the ones near the end.

The first installment, told in four episodes, explores the events surrounding the tragic death of Princess Diana in 1997 along with love interest Dodi Fayed (played by Khalid Abdalla). Part 2 debuts on December 14 with six episodes, focusing on the aftermath of the death of the late Princess of Wales and the future of the monarchy.

“All the scenes before the end of this season were cumulatively very difficult. We filmed them for several weeks. I think shooting the sequences where the two characters are actually being chased by the paparazzi was a really horrible experience. It’s very physical,” Debicki, 33, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “After doing it for a few weeks, we were very exhausted, very tired. We felt it was almost like doing a stunt in a way, in the sense that your body starts to take on a kind of physical experience, and you’re not acting a lot.”

Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Khalid Abdalla as Dodi Fayed in the sixth season of The Crown on Netflix.

Netflix

Elizabeth Debicki on the most important thing she learned playing Princess Diana Crown

“The feeling was almost like being under water. You are simply kind in this swamp of noise, harassment, persecution,” she says. “As an actor playing a role, the character is constantly focused on where he’s trying to get to, but there are a lot of obstacles in the way of getting there, and it was a very difficult, exhausting experience. .”

PEOPLE previously confirmed that the moment of the crash that killed Diana and Dodi will be excluded from the Crown. Executive producers Andy Harries and Suzanne Mackie later emphasized at the Edinburgh TV Festival that the portrayal of the tragedy was handled sensitively on screen.

Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Khalid Abdalla as Dodi Fayed in the sixth season of The Crown on Netflix.

Daniel Escale/Netflix

On August 31, 1997, the Princess of Wales and the Harrods heir were traveling by car in Paris with a driver and a bodyguard being chased by paparazzi when their vehicle hit a support pillar of the Pont de l’Alma tunnel, overturned and came to rest in front of oncoming traffic. Dodi and the driver died at the scene while Diana died later in hospital. She was 36 years old.

The cast Crown changed every two seasons to reflect the royal family’s aging through the decades, and Debicki took over for Emma Corrin as Princess Diana in seasons 5 and 6. The star says what changed in the final season was showing a different side of Diana.

“The script offered different kinds of colors in Diana’s way and I was really grateful for that. I think in season 5 the character is much more isolated. She’s alone a lot and she goes through incredible trials that really test her and test her sense of reality and her sense of self,” Debicki says of the penultimate installment, which chronicles the breakdown of Diana’s marriage to then-Prince Charles, ending in divorce.

“When I opened the scripts for the sixth season, I saw Peter [Morgan] created for me to follow him, is that feeling of someone who is freer, who has somehow blossomed into a different version, who has been through the fires and somehow come through stronger and more focused,” she adds about what the host of the show envisioned.

Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana in the sixth season of The Crown on Netflix.

Daniel Escale/Netflix

Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed relationship timeline

The first part begins with Princess Diana vacationing in Saint-Tropez with her young sons, Prince William (Rufus Kampa) and Prince Harry (Fflyn Edwards), who are hosted on Dodi’s family yacht.

“I think at the beginning of the sixth season, Diana just wants to have a good vacation with her children. She actually just wants to have a good time, which is difficult in life, to say: ‘Everything goes sideways. We’re just having fun,’ says Debicki.

“She really has this intention of having fun. And then, of course, as Peter wrote it, this relationship with Dodi Fayed just sort of comes together and they find each other and they’re surprised by what they find together in terms of chemistry,” the actress continues. “All of those pieces of making this part of the story were is just a pleasure to do, to experience.”

Fflyn Edwards as Prince Harry, Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Rufus Kampa as Prince William in Season 6 of The Crown on Netflix.

Daniel Escale/Netflix

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As for what she most hoped the final season would bring, Debicki says it was Diana as a mother.

“I felt like this season I really had the opportunity to focus on the relationship between Diana and her boys. Just that love and joy and relief of spending time with them, and feeling like you’re really who you are when you have your kids with you, and a real sense of purpose,” Debicki tells PEOPLE. “That was very important to me because obviously we know where the story is going. I really focused, whenever there was an opportunity, to show how incredibly alive and beautiful this person is.”

Crown season 6 episode 1 is now streaming on Netflix.

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Source: HIS Education