The first viewers of Kristen Stewart’s portrayal of Princess Diana are set to take their seats Friday during the Venice Film Festival. Ahead of the first reactions for Spencer, we’re learning more about what to expect from the drama set during the weekend when the late royal decides she needs to end her marriage with Prince Charles.
Kristen Stewart completely committed to transforming into the tragic icon, between changing up her look to resemble Diana, along with taking on her British accent, which even led to her falling asleep to the sound of her voice. There’s been a number of Princess Diana performances over the years, most recently with the latest season of The Crown, but Stewart’s version has an interesting twist. As the film’s director Pablo Larraín shared:
We aren’t trying to explain who she was or answer questions on the larger scale of her life. We’re fictionalizing most of it based on what we think could have happened.
Spencer is more of a fantastical depiction of Princess Diana as the movie isolates the British figure to one weekend of her life over the holidays in 1991, when she made the difficult decision to separate herself from the crown. At the time, the Princess of Wales and her husband were both embroiled in separate affairs and part of a rocky marriage alongside raising their young children. A teaser trailer for Spencer was released last week, and it introduces some of the movie’s cerebral qualities:
It certainly doesn’t look like the biopic many people may think it is by its mention. Pablo Larraín is the filmmaker behind 2016’s Jackie, which took a unique approach to telling the story of President John F. Kennedy’s First Lady. Jackie earned three Oscar nominations, including a Best Actress nomination for Natalie Portman. As Larraín also told Indiewire about his inspiration to tell Princess Diana’s story:
Somehow, despite the enormous distances between these women, I always felt that my mother was very interested in this story, and was somehow influenced by her — like millions of people around the world. Then I wondered why Diana had created such a level of empathy. It’s a very complex answer.
The story being told a lot recently is apparently serendipitous. Kristen Stewart was cast in the role months before the most recent The Crown season earned praise for its young Princess Diana, played by Emma Corrin. The Crown will continue to explore the Princess of Wales through Tenet’s Elizabeth Debicki taking on the role at the end of next year.
Previously, Naomi Watts played the late mother of England’s Prince Charles and Prince Harry in the 2013 movie Diana, which suffered incredibly scathing reviews at the time. Ahead of the film being screened, Kristen Stewart is already predicted to be among this year’s Best Actress nominees, along with other roles about real women (Jessica Chastian for The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Lady Gaga for House of Gucci). Spencer is set to hit theaters this November 5.
