Fflyn Edwards At The Crown premiere in LA on November 12.Photo:Phillip Faraone/Getty
Phillip Faraone/Getty
For Fflyn Edwards, news that he’d won the part of playingPrince Harryin the blockbusting seriesThe Crownwasn’t going to get in the way of his day at the beach!
Edwards' mother came rushing down to the beach to tell him that he’d won the prestigious role while he was with friends in St. Davids, not far from his family home in Carmarthenshire, Wales.
“We were down in St. Davids [and] I was down the beach playing with my friends. My mam came down, painted me in suntan lotion, and said I got the role — but [said] I wouldn’t be allowed it if I had a tan,” hetold BBC Walesrecently. “So mam was painting me and painting me.”
Edwards admitted he hadn’t watched the hit royal saga aboutQueen Elizabethand the modern royal family and had to research all about the real-life Prince Harry via YouTube videos.
In a scene from The Crown Fflyn with Elizabeth Debicki, who plays Princess Diana, and Rufus Kampa, the young Prince William.Daniel Escale/Netflix
Daniel Escale/Netflix
He had to not only master Harry’s accent but also get used to wearing the wig that gave him the royal’s distinctive red hair. (It was “boiling” wearing it and “when I wanted to itch my head I couldn’t because I was worried about moving it out of place,” he said.)
Fflyn with Dominic West, who plays the then Prince Charles in a scene from The Crown.Keith Bernstein/Netflix
Keith Bernstein/Netflix
Not only that, but Welsh is Flyn’s first language and thankfully for him there were some actors who spoke it on set.
“It was nice really because I was far from home [so it was good] to see Welsh people and speak the language with them,” he told the BBC. “Talking in English for a long time does make me miss the language, and speaking to someone [in Welsh] does feel like home.”
Whether he will now watch all the back stories of the royal family, via the early seasons, is an open question. Sports might come first!
Part 1 of the final sixth season ofThe Crownwill debut on Netflix on Nov. 16, and will see Harry and his brotherPrince Williamwith their motherPrincess Dianain the final weeks before her death.
The sixth season also marks the end of the show itself. The three actresses who have been playing the late Queen Elizabeth were celebrated in this week’s issue of PEOPLE forhow they’ve capturedone of the major icons of the last century.
“People forget how beautiful Elizabeth was,”The Crown’s costume designer Amy Roberts told PEOPLE. “This young girl growing up, the discipline that she brings on herself is quite remarkable. Her clothes might be fashionable, but there’s a more controlled element about them.”
Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth in the early seasons of The Crown.Courtesy Netflix
Courtesy Netflix
Adds Robert Lacey, the series’ historical consultant: “They were very glamorous years. The Queen was the most glamorous figure in the world, and Claire Foy captured that well. [Foy] also conveyed her fragility and her uncertainty and how she grew into the role.”
The part passed to Olivia Colman in Seasons 3 and 4, who plays a middle-aged Queen unafraid to clash with her prime ministers on politics.
“Those seasons portrayed how the Queen could relate to her people more closely than their elected representatives,” Lacey explains.
Claire Foy, Olivia Colman, and Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth.Netflix (3)
Netflix (3)
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And Imelda Staunton, who closes the role of the Queen in Seasons 5 and 6, gracefully portrays the monarch’s tumultuous later years.
“She captured the twinkle amid the dowdiness. She brought great softness to the stern side of the Queen,” he tells PEOPLE. “Those were the years of the family issues threatening toderail the family institution. You could say she kept it on the rails.”
source: people.com
