‘The Crown’ Season 5: Dominic West Found 1 Recording That Revealed Private Side of Prince Charles
In The Crown Season 5, Dominic West took over the role of Prince Charles. The season portrays the royals’ difficult decade of the ‘90s, beginning in 1991 with Charles’ second honeymoon with Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and through other scandals. West embodies the Prince Charles we all remember from his public appearances, but he was on his own when it came to the scenes behind closed doors.
West was a guest on The Crown: The Official Podcast episode on Nov. 18 covering the fifth episode of the season. The actor revealed his trick to discover what Prince Charles might have sounded like when he wasn’t putting on airs.
‘The Crown’ Season 5 emphasizes the private side of Prince Charles
West noted the difference between the public persona of Prince Charles and what he would have been like in private. Since The Crown extrapolates the drama of what the royals might have said in private, West had to figure out how to portray that side of Prince Charles.
“It’s a very difficult thing about The Crown,” West said on The Crown podcast. “Except for Diana, she did these personal interviews on tape, it’s very hard to hear any of the royals, certainly Charles in private. We know their public persona but we don’t know their private.”
Dominic West discovered the private Prince Charles
The Crown Season 5 shows the breakdown of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage. It shows the private phone call with Camilla Parker Bowles (Olivia Williams) in which Charles’ sex talk got leaked to the press. The show also suggests machinations behind the scenes as Prince Charles maneuvers to become King Charles sooner, though former Prime Minister John Major disputes that.
“All I had to go on was this: he narrates his book called Harmony,” West said. “So I got nine hours of him narrating his book which is all done in his public persona but he gets tired narrating it, as I’ve narrated books and it gets tiring. When he gets tired, the public persona fell away and you could hear his tones of what he might be in private.”
Dominic West also got closer to Prince Charles
West also chose a royally significant location to embark on his preparations. That’s where he listened to the audiobook among other The Crown Season 5 prep.
“I went to Cornwall actually,” West said. “Somewhere to go. He’s Duke of Cornwall. That was a large part of it. We were just coming out of lockdown so Cornwall wasn’t overrun with people which is another good thing. And I rang up, he has an estate down there or he rescued this house down there. You can rent a cottage or several cottages. I’ve got five kids so I needed to get away to concentrate.”
