Elizabeth Debicki's Princess Diana Is 'Unnervingly Accurate'—Biographer

Elizabeth Debicki's depiction of Princess Diana in Season 5 of The Crown left her secret biographer Andrew Morton "absolutely blown away."

The Australian actress portrays the royal making tape-recorded confessions about King Charles III's affair with Camilla, now the queen consort, which a friend then smuggles to Morton for his book Diana: Her True Story.

Debicki, unlike many of the actresses who have played Diana before her, is tall, like the princess herself; and she re-creates Diana's tendency to angle her head down and her eyes up.

Morton told Newsweek: "I was absolutely blown away. I found Elizabeth Debicki's portrayal of Diana unnervingly accurate.

"It was like being taken back 30 years to Diana recording the tapes. I was left shocked at how authentic it was.

"She's got the mannerisms, she has the voice and the way she spoke, she had obviously listened to the tapes.

"There's one thing to listen to a tape recording, there's quite another to watch an actress who resembles Diana and plays Diana speaking the words. I found it—disturbing is the wrong word—but it took me back 30 years."

Morton was not the only one impressed at Debicki's performance, which also caught the eye of Daily Mail columnist Richard Kay, a friend of the princess who was among the last people to speak to her alive, hours before the car crash that took her life in 1997.

Kay wrote: "In Elizabeth Debicki, The Crown has uncovered the most natural and believable Diana yet.

"Unlike the elfin-faced Emma Corrin from season four (too short), Australia-born Debicki possesses the Princess's natural statuesque grace, mischievousness and beauty. She has both her mannerisms and her voice.

"Indeed, closing my eyes I found myself imagining that it was my friend Diana speaking."

Kay's praise for Debicki comes despite the fact the newspaper he writes a column for has been highly critical of The Crown from the perspective of accuracy.

While he took issue with some scenes, his assessment of Season 5 was somewhat less damning than other articles in the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.

His article, published on November 8, was headlined: "Elizabeth Debicki is eerily good as Princess Diana in The Crown. But I can tell you that many of the scenes depicted were SO much more interesting in real life."

Kay outlined how even some of the more private moments in the season are in reality drawn from real life, though with some details changed.

As examples, he cites a moment when Princess Diana watched a phone-in debate about the royal family from her apartment at Kensington Palace and a scene in which Charles stops around to see her for a chat after their divorce.

Both were based on real life, though were not re-created identically in the version that fans will watch on Netflix.

Kay wrote: "The ITV programme, Monarchy—the Nation Decides, hosted by the broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald, was real enough. So how curious, then, that two crucial elements about that night in early January 1997 should be missing.

"Point one was that, far from being alone, Diana actually watched the debate with William and Harry, who were sitting alongside her.

"The second came when the studio audience of 3,000—it was filmed at Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre—were asked whether Camilla Parker Bowles could ever be Queen, and to respond by holding up cue cards: blue for Yes, red for No.

"The vote resulted in a blizzard of red cards and a resounding No. And in Diana's sitting room, the moment was broken by a then 12-year-old Harry.

"'Who's Camilla?' he asked in a small voice. As William sniggered, Diana abruptly told her younger son: 'Right, bedtime'—but added, tellingly: 'You will have to ask Papa about her.'"