May the royal hand-wringing cease, so sayeth Netflix’s very own Princess Diana.
According to Variety, actress Emma Corrin, who portrays the late princess in season four of Netflix’s Emmy-winning drama The Crown, fully supports the streamer’s refusal to appease the royal court and its faithful champions, denying a call to put an unnecessary disclaimer ahead of the episodes. “It is very clearly a dramatized version of events,” Corrin tells Variety’s Marc Malkin, who interviewed the actress for a forthcoming podcast episode. “This is fictitious in the same way people don’t mistake Succession for what actually happened with the Murdochs. I also understand [the request] comes from a place of sensitivity and protectiveness of the royal family and Diana.”
The request she’s referring to came early December at the literal hands of the U.K. government’s culture secretary, Oliver Dowden. The official wrote a private letter to Netflix and publicly aired his concerns over future generations possibly not understanding the difference between real life and fiction, thereby confusing the surely pristine royals as (and feel free to gasp here) highly problematic individuals. After suggesting that the platform add a disclaimer ahead of the episodes explaining that the contents of the show aren’t real, Netflix responded with a very polite version of “No, we are not doing that bullshit,” pointing out that its subscribers are smart enough to draw appropriate lines between reality and those moments that are played up for television.
Though the show has been a fan favorite since 2016, the most recent season seems to be drawing more attention and clear concern from the British royal family as it nears the current timeline and continues to shed an unflattering (but still hypothetical, technically?) light on the otherwise dignified figures. The fourth season covers the years 1977-1990 and introduced Princess Diana’s tumultuous experience in the court. Widows standout Elizabeth Debicki is slated to play older Diana in the next season.