In the 27 years since Princess Diana’s death, she’s been portrayed on screen multiple times, by everyone from Naomi Watts to Elizabeth Debicki, who won an Emmy for her efforts.
However, according to the late Princess of Wales’ brother, Earl Charles Spencer, there’s one that came closer than anyone else to really capturing her essence.
This week, the journalist Tina Brown – who published her own biography of Diana back in 2007 – asked Earl Spencer as part of a Q&A if he thinks there is a “fictional portrayal of Diana” that has “come close to capturing what she was like in real life”.
“I was on a plane and I saw a movie called Spencer,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘I’d better look at that’. And there was Kristen Stewart, who doesn’t really look like Diana, but my goodness, she caught the spirit. I thought it was an incredible performance.”
Not pulling any punches, he then quipped: “The film’s terrible. But I was really intrigued by how good she was at capturing Diana.”
Spencer was released in 2021, and centres around a fictional reimagining of Princess Diana’s last time celebrating Christmas with the Royal Family at Sandringham House.
Directed by Pablo Larraín, the film made heavy use of artistic licence, including scenes in which Diana is depicted as being haunted by visions of Anne Boleyn.
Kristen Stewart was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Diana, whose former bodyguard Ken Wharfe called it the “closest to her” he’d ever seen on screen, praising the former Twilight star for managing to “perfect her mannerisms” and voice.
Pablo Larrain/Neon/THA/Shutterstock
Elsewhere in the interview, Earl Spencer also made clear that he doesn’t “watch The Crown” and therefore couldn’t “talk about that”.
Diana appeared as a character in the fourth, fifth and sixth seasons of Netflix’s regal drama, first played by Emma Corrin, and later by Elizabeth Debicki.
The final season of The Crown raised eyebrows upon its release, over scenes in which the late Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles were both visited by Diana’s spirit.
