For six seasons, The Crown told the story of the British royal family during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The show combined real-life events with acts of imagination, meaning that it was not always a hundred percent accurate. Season four of the series introduced everyone’s beloved Princess Diana, played by Emma Corrin, who later handed over the role to Elizabeth Debicki in season five.
Emma Corrin, though a great actor, had only a few acting credits to their name before being cast as Lady Diana. Needless to say, the job made them quite nervous. After all, they were bringing one of the United Kingdom’s most popular personalities to the screen. In fact, there was one scene where they got a panic attack while filming.
Emma Corrin Got a Panic Attack on The Crown
In season 4 episode 9, Emma Corrin‘s Princess Diana gifts a VHS tape of her performing Phantom of the Opera’s ‘All I Ask of You’ to Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) on the occasion of his birthday. While the gift may seem unusual to many, the gesture was quite sweet, wasn’t it?
While The Crown has faced criticism for its inaccuracies, this particular scene was not fictionalized; rather, it was recreated to the extent that it closely mirrored reality. Talking to Vanity Fair, Corrin revealed just how shocked they were to learn about the scene and the real-life event.
“The Phantom of the Opera thing shocked me the most. That it’s exactly as it happened in the series—as in she hired the West End set, got a film crew in, and filmed it for Charles. Which is mental.”
Needless to say, the scene marked an important moment in Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles’ life as a married couple. Thus, bringing the scene to the screen was not going to be easy.
Corrin told the publication that they filmed both the Uptown Girl ballet scene and the All I Ask of You scene consecutively one day after the day. The actor was absolutely exhausted to the point that they actually ended up having a panic attack on set.
“It was very overwhelming. I had a huge panic attack in the middle of the filming ‘All I Ask of You’ because I was knackered. Filming any kind of performance sequence means you have to do it a thousand times. And there were also a lot of people around.”
Filming the scene took a lot of effort from them as they had to keep performing over and over again in front of a theatre audience to get the perfect take. The cast members of Phantom of the Opera, an actual orchestra, and the conductor were also right there with them.
Emma Corrin Was Worried about Not Being Up to the Mark
While filming the performance, it was tough for Corrin to match the conductor who was used to doing things his own way, as he had been doing for all these years. The Deadpool & Wolverine actor, though, had practiced it differently.
Because of the clash in their ways, there were moments of concern on the set as either Corrin had to learn it all from the start or the conductor had to do things a little differently. While this proved to be an obstacle, and Corrin was afraid they were “doing it badly”, they were finally able to pull through.
They told Vanity Fair,
“The real conductor is obviously very used to doing it his way. He’d been conducting it for years. And I had learned it a different way. So I started singing, and it was awful, because we basically were doing two different things. I remember everyone thinking, ‘Oh no’, because either I was going to have to try and learn a whole different version of timing and of everything, or he was going to have to bend his way. And it was fine. It was just terrifying. I was so worried about doing it badly.”
After their splendid performance as the Princess of Wales in season 4, for which they received several accolades, they passed on the mantle to Elizabeth Debicki who went on to play the role till the show’s finale.
Stream The Crown on Netflix.
