What Does Kristen Stewart Really Think Of Emma Corrin's Portrayal Of Princess Diana?

Our obsession with the British royal family has not abated. One need only look at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's lives and how much the media has made of their decision to step down as senior working members of the family, after all. Conversely, Prince William and Kate Middleton remain major fixtures of the cultural conversation, while actively working as royals.

The royal fascination has also moved from reality to fiction, with portrayals of the British monarchy in renditions like Netflix's "The Crown," which was, as The Daily Beast notes, "the most expensive television production ever." Streaming giants like Netflix are willing to shell out the cash because they know there's a guaranteed return. And it's all happening again with Pablo Larraín's film "Spencer" starring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana. The film tackles yet again, the complicated and beloved persona of "the people's princess."

What so much of this royal fascination seems to boil down to is Diana herself. Harry and William are, after all, her sons. Season 4 of "The Crown," the season that followed Diana's story, was the most watched and most anticipated season of the show, Tatler explains. Obviously, the royal family still fascinates and delights us, but so much of the lure goes back to the tragic, powerful story of Diana. However, playing the princess is also the ultimate challenge for an actor. Emma Corrin tackled the challenge beautifully in "The Crown," with Stewart following. So, what did Stewart have to say about Corrin's portrayal of the same iconic woman?

Kristen Stewart opened up about the process of playing Princess Diana in the film "Spencer." She signed onto the project before even knowing much about it. "I knew even before I read the script,” Stewart told Entertainment Weekly. "I was like, 'You're not going to say no to this, because who would you be in that case?'" she added, noting that she "would have felt like such a coward ... given that I'm such an outsider." Stewart continued, "I'm not from the U.K., I don't have any particular investment in the royal family. So I was kind of this really clean slate, and then could absorb her in a way that actually felt very instinctive, you know?"

As if playing Diana isn't hard enough, Stewart is coming in hard on the heels of Emma Corrin's portrayal in "The Crown," and the temptation to compare might be inevitable. Corrin did do a fantastic job, after all. Decider wrote, ​​"Emma Corrin is hands down the best onscreen Diana we've ever seen." Adding to the parallels, the two actors used the same dialect coach, William Conacher, according to IndieWire, to get Diana's cadence just right.

Despite the looming challenge, Stewart had nothing but good things to say about "The Crown" and Corrin herself. "I watched it probably in one night," she told EW. "I think [actor Emma Corrin] did a really beautiful job. I mean, not to say that my opinion matters at all!" She added: "But I loved her in it, truly." No rivalry here!