06 January

Feature: Elizabeth Debicki for Madame Figaro


 

Une stature inhabituelle : 1,90 m, soit bien plus que Geena Davis, Sigourney Weaver ou Nicole Kidman, réputées être les plus grandes actrices de Hollywood. Une taille qui fait sa singularité et en impose. Une taille qui, avant qu’elle ne devienne une force, fut d’abord une malchance pour Elizabeth Debicki : trop grande pour tout, surtout pour devenir ballerine, son rêve d’enfant et le métier de ses deux parents, danseurs classiques. Tout cela est derrière elle quand on la rencontre à Paris, où elle est née il y a trente-deux ans, par hasard, au gré des pérégrinations familiales.

La voilà chez Dior, dont elle est ambassadrice joaillerie. De grands yeux clairs de chat mélancolique, un sourire énigmatique, qui trahit peut-être une lucidité amusée sur le monde qui l’entoure, un port d’altesse, des jambes longues comme un soir de Noël à Balmoral : telle est cette comédienne cosmopolite, de nationalité australienne, découverte en 2013 dans Gatsby le Magnifique, de Baz Luhrmann, aux côtés de Leonardo DiCaprio, puis vue notamment dans Tenet, de Christopher Nolan. Qui d’autre qu’elle pouvait incarner le rôle de Lady Diana dans la cinquième saison de la série à succès The Crown, diffusée depuis novembre sur Netflix. Rôle qu’elle a déjà retrouvé pour la sixième et dernière saison, dont le tournage vient de s’achever.

Après Naomi Watts (Diana, d’Oliver Hirschbiegel), Emma Corrin (The Crown, saison 4) Kristen Stewart (Spencer, de Pablo Larraín), Elizabeth Debicki est entrée dans la liste VIP des actrices qui ont eu le privilège d’évoquer la cultissime princesse de Galles. Pour Debicki, c’est durant les six dernières années de sa vie, entre 1991 et 1997, les années les plus tumultueuses de son existence et les plus périlleuses qu’ait connues la monarchie anglaise, avec l’incendie du château de Windsor, le divorce des enfants d’Élisabeth II, le Camillagate, les règlements de compte par interviews interposées entre Charles et Diana, la biographie explosive d’Andrew Morton et le divorce du couple princier. Six années capitales, selon Peter Morgan, l’auteur de la série, durant lesquelles la jeune princesse perdue se transforme en altesse combattante qui prépare son évasion.

À cette époque, certains ont stigmatisé Lady Diana, la jugeant déséquilibrée, fragile, superficielle, enfant gâtée… Alors, pour ces raisons, elle s’est défendue vaillamment, a utilisé les médias pour se faire entendre, dire sa vérité de femme, de femme malheureuse, trompée et sous-estimée. «En cela, je la trouve très moderne, très féministe, avance Elizabeth Debicki. Elle a participé à l’émancipation des femmes en difficulté, qui, grâce à elle, ont osé s’exprimer sans crainte.» Telle est la vision de la princesse de Galles que l’actrice a choisi de montrer. «Non pas une princesse rebelle ou capricieuse, ajoute-t-elle, mais une princesse révolutionnaire, celle qui a été la première à briser les tabous en rompant le silence de mise à la Cour.» [More at Source]

27 November

Feature: Elizabeth Debicki for Vogue Australia!

It’s a Friday morning in Spain when Elizabeth Debicki Zooms in from the Mallorca set of The Crown, where the Australian actor is currently filming season six as Diana, Princess of Wales. “I’m in a little flat with a very interesting clock on the wall,” she deadpans, referring to her basic holiday rental that’s dwarfed by a frameless timepiece, comprised of numerals painted directly onto the white wall over her shoulder. “The first time I came here was doing The Night Manager, which I was horrified to count backwards and realise was seven years ago,” the 32-year-old continues, blue eyes sparkling behind oversized tortoiseshell frames. Lifting a wine glass, she adds, “This is a protein shake, in a wine glass, because we’re out of normal glasses. Please don’t judge.”

Right now, life for Debicki is somewhat topsy-turvy and time is clearly on her mind. “It’s such a strange experiment, you come to beautiful places that people only come to have a lovely vacation, and you work really hard and funny hours. The first week you’re like, ‘I can have a nice lunch and do my work. I’m totally capable.’ Then after the third week, you’re like this nocturnal animal. You’re so tired and you see people having dinner under your building and you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah. Restaurant.’ It’s such a weird experience.”

Production on season six is now back into overdrive after a respectful pause for the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. “We had just gotten to Barcelona, and I think we’d shot a day,” she recalls. “Of course, we paused, which was the right thing to do. It was very surreal, very sad and very sobering for everybody. I suddenly felt very homesick,” she shares, referring to her parents, and younger brother and sister, back in Melbourne. “I could tell it was really hard for people to be away from their families,” she continues, explaining that 95 per cent of The Crown’s crew are English. “Grief, as we all know, sneaks up in the oddest of ways. All the crew and cast stayed in the same hotel, and everyone just kept passing each other. It’s strange being on location because it’s liminal space where you don’t have to do your laundry, but you’re not at work and you don’t know what to do. I spent a lot of time watching that queue,” she says of the line to visit the monarch Lying-in-State, which was 10 miles long and a 24-hour wait at its peak. “It was just the perfect snapshot of what English people are and [are] capable of. It was very moving.”

After years commuting between Sydney and London in her 20s for many a film set and to tread the boards at Britain’s National Theatre, Debicki, who was born in Paris but raised in Melbourne, has been based in North London since 2018. “I miss them really a lot all the time,” she says of her close-knit family. Her parents, both professional dancers, ignited her passion for the arts. “But I guess I’ve gotten used to missing people. That’s the expat’s lot. When I land in Australia, the wash of familiarity, comfort and nostalgia is extremely settling for me. But London feels like my home now.”

Debicki was last back in Melbourne in August for a surprise visit for her birthday. “I just really wanted to see my dad’s face, and he gave me what I really needed,” she smiles. “He was watering something in the front yard and I jumped out of the corner. My sister was filming it. My mum opens the door with this all-knowing look and she’s like, ‘I knew you were here. I felt it!’ I was like, ‘Oh, come on. Give it to me, I just flew across the ocean!’” [More at Source]

08 November

Feature: Elizabeth Debicki for Netflix Tudum!

The Season 4 finale of The Crown ends with Emma Corrin’s Diana standing on the edge of a family Christmas photo. Nearly a decade into her marriage, she’s finally coming to terms with the fact that things haven’t gone as planned. As Princess of Wales, she’s a central figure in the royal family; but as an individual, she feels very much out of place in a system designed for conformity. The camera slowly zooms in on her face, and she appears both determined and resigned as she contemplates what to do next.

Season 5, which premieres on Netflix on Nov. 9, ushers in a new chapter in Diana’s story. Now played by Elizabeth Debicki, the character encounters challenges and triumphs as the series enters the ’90s, a decade of turmoil and self-discovery. You may recognize some familiar themes: Once again, Diana’s relationship with Charles (now played by Dominic West) is on shaky ground, and she chafes at the rigid rules that govern the members of the House of Windsor. But unlike her younger self, this version of Diana is never skirting the frame. Even through losses and setbacks, she plunges into the spotlight, embracing the heady brew of style, empathy and charisma that made her one of the most famous women in the world.

Ahead, Debicki reflects on her transformation into this more recognizable Diana and teases what to expect from the character (revenge dress, anyone?) this season.

How would you describe Diana’s mindset when we meet her at the beginning of Season 5?
I feel like it’s a pretty direct pickup of where we left with Emma [Corrin] playing Diana. The character’s trying to conform and make peace with things within the family that she’s in and within the marriage that she’s in. I think that there is a hopefulness that things can be repaired, when we first pick up. It’s very interesting playing these characters because we pick up the bat of what’s been laid out before us. It’s a unique way to start playing a part, really, because there’s a transition that the writing seamlessly does, and then we, as the actors, have to take this leap of faith, and then the audience does it with us. It’s unusual, but it’s also really exciting and it’s challenging. [More at Source]

07 November

Feature: Elizabeth Debicki for Radio Times

The fifth season of The Crown will introduce viewers to a brand new cast as the action moves into a new era.

Elizabeth Debicki has taken on the role of Princess Diana, replacing season 4 star Emma Corrin, and the new episodes see the Australian actress tasked with reenacting a tumultuous period in the late royal’s life.

Set in the ’90s, season 5 dramatises the collapse of Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles (Dominic West) and her ensuing loneliness as she becomes yet more isolated from her royal in-laws, as well as her decision to go public with her grievances in her notorious Panorama interview with Martin Bashir.

Speaking in this week’s Radio Times magazine, Debicki responded to suggestions that some viewers might see the Princess’s behaviour as “manipulative” or selfish in some scenes, explaining that it is “fascinating” to hear different responses to her character after spending so long immersed in the role.

“There’s a part of me that goes, ‘No, I’m not,’ because I’ve been inside the character for so long,” she said. “It’s fascinating because it’s the first time we’re really hearing it, it’s interesting that that’s your read on it.”

The star went on to reveal that the new season explores the tabloid media landscape in Britain in the ’90s, and examines Diana’s relationship with those publications.

“The character of Diana has a very interesting relationship at that point in the story with the media, because it’s something that can be used to a perceived advantage, and then, at times, obviously it can backfire because it’s an extremely unruly beast.” [More at Source]

07 November

Feature: Elizabeth Debicki for The Guardian’s Saturday Magazine

Elizabeth Debicki has had Diana, Princess of Wales on her mind for at least five years. When she first auditioned for The Crown, the soapy royal family saga that doubles up as a tabloid flashpoint, it wasn’t to play Diana at all. She read for a part way back in season two, though she won’t say which, because someone else played it “beautifully”. “Also, if I told people, they’d be like, what?” she adds, as if the idea is absurd, which means we can only speculate that she was up for the part of Prince Philip.

She thought she had blown it. “Well, I did, in the fact that I did not get the part,” she deadpans. The Crown’s creator, Peter Morgan, spotted something else, however. “They obviously saw something Diana-ish in my audition, which is really not what I was going for at that time.” Her agent called her and asked if she’d be interested in playing Diana at some point in the future. She filed it away in the back of her mind, where it lurked until a couple of years ago. Then she got the call. “It was a much more formal, will you do this role?” She’d had plenty of time to think about it. She said yes.

Debicki lives in London, but we are speaking on a video call as she is in Mallorca filming The Crown’s sixth and reportedly final season. She has come to my rescue, giving me clear instructions about how to make the windows bigger, which she finds funny, as usually she’s the one in need of tech support. “Any technology I use is running on some ancient program. People open it up and they’re like, why is this from 2004? Why do you have 874 unread emails?” She picks up her phone and shows me her email app. It’s actually 23,460 unread emails. That’s disgraceful! “It’s utterly, utterly revolting,” she grins. She has friends who, when they meet her for coffee, open up her phone, just so they can delete some of her messages.

This is a rare day off for her and she is feeling tired. It is easy to understand why; much of The Crown’s fifth season is Diana-heavy and deals with the final collapse of her marriage to Prince (now King) Charles. We talk for almost an hour and a half, and she fidgets admirably. She puts her glasses on and takes them off. She wears her hair up, and down, up, and down. She scratches her forehead, her nose, touching her mouth, her face, always moving, just a bit. This is all the more striking because most of her characters, from Jed in The Night Manager to Kat in Tenet, are glacially still, regally sombre, near-encased in their own sadness. One of the reasons she doesn’t often get recognised in the street, she suspects, is because she doesn’t much resemble her characters off-duty, and in the case of The Crown that’s certainly true. Even after two years of filming, her long, straight blond hair came as a surprise to one of the makeup artists on set, who had assumed that the Diana hair was real and that Debicki’s real hair was a wig. “At least we’re selling it,” she says. [More at Source]