SPOILERS are ahead for Spencer, now playing in theaters.
Pablo Larraín’s Spencer is a bold film from almost every angle. It takes a popular figure in history and tells a fictionalized account of one of the most important moments in her life. When Princess Diana left the crown by divorcing Prince Charles, it was a controversial decision, and as the movie illustrates, it may have been absolutely necessary to her survival and mental health. But we’re here to talk about perhaps the happiest moment in the film: the first time we hear Kristen Stewart’s Diana laugh in Spencer.
Late in the film, Diana is overjoyed when her royal dresser from the beginning of the film, Sally Hawkins’ Maggie, comes back to be by her side after she was previously replaced during the holidays. As the pair sit together on the beach, Maggie declares that she’s actually in love with Diana (yes, in that way). It causes an eruption of laughter from Diana, who seems nervous, but not unafraid to the idea.
Spencer ultimately ends with Diana taking her two young children William and Harry in her car to KFC and dining by the London Bridge without Maggie. But many of us may have found ourselves rooting for the possibility of Diana and the mysterious royal dresser running away together. When Bustle asked K-Stew about it, she said this:
I was so in love with Sally Hawkins on this movie, and like the roles were reversed. Man. Yeah, of course. Dude, going out with her, fun. I couldn't stop laughing with this woman. There's the one moment in the movie that there is serious, contagious levity ... They have this scene that reminds Diana that people do love her, which has an absurd quality to it, because she's obviously highly coveted. Everyone loves you, dude. But then in this very personal, very vulnerable way, both of them are reminded that there are individuals in all of this too. And I think it's so cute when she starts laughing with her. Yeah, I don't know. Of course. I totally ship Maggie and Diana.
Kristen Stewart said she totally ships the two movie characters and had a ton of fun working with Sally Hawkins in the role. The truth is that Maggie is not a real person. Diana certainly had royal dressers, but Sally Hawkins’ character was created for the purpose of the story. Royal dressers are intimate figures in the lives of royals like the late Princess Diana, so while it’s possible that a secret adoration could have sparked between this dynamic.
The character was, however, reportedly inspired by Diana’s real-life dresser and loyal friend Fay Appleby, whom she traveled the world with. Diana also stuck with Appleby into the beginning of her battle with cancer.
Kristen Stewart is, of course, an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, being part of it herself as a bisexual woman, and she recently got engaged to her partner, Dylan Meyer. The truth of the matter is if something like this did happen, it was the '90s and it was Princess Diana, and there is almost no way we would know about it. The beauty of the scene is getting to see Princess Diana for a moment, for the first time smiling and seeing the power of love from another person within the royal house.
By the end of Spencer, it doesn’t feel like it’s making any bold claims about Diana’s sexuality, especially as its final moments turn the focus solely on Diana and her children. The entirety of Spencer is more about the feeling than the events itself, and Kristen Stewart loved bringing her scenes with Sally Hawkins to screen.
