‘The Crown’: Emma Corrin is the Best Princess Diana Ever Seen on Screen

Princess Diana was always going to be the hardest role for The Crown to cast. Beloved by the public, hounded by the press, and doomed with the most tragic ending, she was a larger-than-life character that everyone tuning into the show would already have a fully formed opinion on. While the rest of The Crown is devoted to showing the human side of England’s figureheads, Diana was popular because she was so open with her humanity. Fragile, resilient, beautiful, shy, manipulative…Diana was a mess of contradictions and yet a singular icon in her own right.

Which is why it’s all the more impressive that relative newcomer Emma Corrin inhabits the role like it’s a second skin. The actress doesn’t just nail Diana’s memorable mannerisms and lyrical vocal tics. She seemingly resurrects Diana from the grave. More than that, she offers a unique spin on Diana, making her as lovable and confounding as she was purported to be in real life. Emma Corrin is hands down the best onscreen Diana we’ve ever seen. (Yeah, uh, sorry, Naomi Watts.)

The Crown is Netflix’s grand look at the scandalous lives of Britain’s Royal Family. Season 1 opened on Princess Elizabeth’s (Claire Foy) marriage to the rakish Greek and German Prince Philip (Matt Smith) and followed her early years as monarch. With each passing season, we follow Queen Elizabeth II (now played by Olivia Colman) through the decades. As she’s grown more comfortable in her role, her family’s grown more rebellious. Eldest son and heir Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) has his heart set on the married Camilla Parker Bowles (Emerald Fennell), and only the sudden death by assassination of his mentor Lord Mountbatten (Charles Dance) can push him to settle down with a more sensible match.

Lady Diana Spencer maybe the right choice for England, but she is the wrong choice for Charles. His obsession with Camilla Parker Bowles aside, she’s a teenager to his 30. He’s a country dandy with a love of gardening. She’s a townie who loves clubbing, dancing, and roller skating to Duran Duran. Both are desperate for love, which is a problem because Diana’s innate charisma leaves Charles feeling rebuffed. He lacks the self-confidence to accept the way crowds respond to her, and therefore treats the adulation Diana receives as if he’s emotionally being sucked into a black hole.

We knew all this before The Crown Season 4 debuted. But Corrin’s performance makes us feel it.

Corrin doesn’t just perfectly nail the Diana we saw in press conferences, although that would be triumph enough for the 24-year-old actress. She captures the tilt of Diana’s chin and the haunting way every sentence was spoken as a shy question. But besides delivering an uncanny recreation of Diana’s most famous moments, Corrin also shows us her hidden despair. We see her hugging herself in the middle of a cavernous palace room, plodding through the self-destructive patterns of bulimia, and wistfully looking out the window like a maiden trapped in a tower.

What Corrin does is unbelievable, from the technical craft of mimicking Diana’s mannerisms to imbuing them with a new crackling energy. She makes Diana’s iconic moments feel fresh, alive, and on the verge of maybe taking a turn from reality. I was watching The Crown‘s take on the infamous engagement press conference where Charles says “whatever love means,” and there was such a flash of confused sorrow on Corrin’s face, I wondered if Di would leave him at the altar.

Of course, the Diana of The Crown is stuck on the tracks of the real Diana’s life. Her story cannot be rewritten. She will have to suffer the indignities of being cheated on throughout her marriage. Ultimately this Diana will break free of the establishment, only to die tragically young in a paparazzi-fueled car crash. Corrin plays Diana the way Diana described herself in the documentary Diana: In Her Own Words: as a sacrificial lamb.

Corrin has delivered hands down the best dramatic interpretation of Princess Diana to date, which only adds pressure to her successor. Elizabeth Debicki will take over the role for The Crown Season 5. It’s a sage choice. The tall Aussie actress will be able to not only wear Di’s legendary post-divorce clothing like armor, but she’ll be able to imbue the newly confident Lady Diana with the confidence she earned through heartache.

For now, though, The Crown‘s Diana is Emma Corrin’s nymph-like version of the Princess. She’s the Diana who once though fairy tales could come true and found herself ground down by the realization that they wouldn’t for her. And Corrin plays this Diana fabulously.

Watch The Crown on Netflix