Gillian Anderson has defended ‘The Crown’ as she believes the show has made the royal family “more internationally loved, celebrated and understood”.
Gillian Anderson believes ‘The Crown’ has made the royal family “more internationally loved, celebrated and understood”.
The 54-year-old actress – who played former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the fourth season of the drama – has defended the Netflix series against allegations it has caused hurt by digging unnecessarily into the lives of the late Queen Elizabeth and her relatives but she insisted the writers have exercised a lot of “kindness and restraint” and the show has had more of a positive impact than negative.
She said: “It’s a drama. There’s a lot of researchers involved and a lot of people checking and double-checking and triple-checking.
“There’s a lot that has not been written about that could be written about.
“And if you knew the difference in those, you’d see there is a great deal of kindness and restraint.
“And I think at the end of the day, there are incredibly compassionate and well-rounded takes on human beings.
“And what you’re left with is properly, maturely drawn, complex characters.
“And there’s a lot that’s in there that one has to say; if you didn’t do it, we wouldn’t be writing about it.
“I think the whole family is more internationally loved, celebrated and understood in a way that they wouldn’t be were it not for the show.”
Gillian admitted she had “so much fear” before she started filming and had to juggle her nerves with preparing properly for the role.
She told Total Film magazine: “[I had] so much fear. It was a year where I knew I was doing theatre, which brings its own fears, and then ‘The Crown’ after – absolutely terrifying in their own ways.
“But, of course, one has to find a way to compartmentalise to a certain degree because it’s almost like, ‘OK, I’m not at the stage yet where I need to properly get afraid. There will be a point in the not-so-distant future where it will start making sense to properly get afraid. But I have to find a way to dive into her without literally wanting to throw up every time I open a book about her.’
“I started with research and listening to interviews and starting to hear the rhythm of her voice.
“And so then doing that simultaneously to reading her books; any time I was in the car, listening to her read her autobiography.
“It’s almost just allowing it to absorb without accepting the fact that eventually I’m going to have to make my own version of it.”
On the same day that Glastonbury welcomed back Margate's adopted sons, The Libertines, Margate itself put on it's very own Leisure Festival as it...
Sheffield's very own all girl group Pretty Fierce are still on a high after the recent release of their debut single - 'Ready For Me'.
Three nights before the end of his current tour Will Varley returned to his home town of Deal to delight a sold out crowd in The Astor Theatre.
With only a few days to go before Portsmouth based songstress and producer WYSE releases her new single, 'Belladonna', we caught up with her to find...
Colorado raised, Glasgow educated and Manchester based Bay Bryan is nothing if not a multi-talented, multi-faceted artist performing as both...
Former Marigolds band member Keelan Cunningham has rediscovered his love of music with his new solo project Keelan X.
Wiltshire singer-songwriter Luke De Sciscio, formally known as Folk Boy, is set to release is latest album - 'The Banquet' via AntiFragile Music on...
Electronic music pioneer and producer Annie Elise says that the release of her first EP - 'Breathe In, Breathe Out' feels "both vulnerable and...
Filmmaker Gurinder Chada (Bend It Like Beckham) draws on her own family history to explore...
'Viceroy's House' follows the life of the last Viceroy of India who was the figurehead...
For a low-budget kids' movie, this British science-fiction adventure has an unusually sharp cast, decent...
When Earth is suddenly taken over by colossal robots from another planet, the citizens of...
Matthew Morgan is living in the romantic city of Paris after retiring from his teaching...
Complex emotions and a gentle exploration of interpersonal connections make this Paris-set drama worth a...
From the studio that brought us classics like Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, this...
A bracingly honest approach to flawed characters makes this small-scale Swiss drama thoroughly involving. And...
Like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, this thriller refuses to burst out into action mode, preferring...
Colette McVeigh is a single mother who lives with her mother in Belfast. She is...
After the painfully unfunny 2003 original, a franchise was highly unlikely. And yet the spoof...
Director Terrence Davies took a chance casting "The X-Files'" Gillian Anderson as the devastated heroine...