Helena Bonham Carter said in a recent interview with The Guardian that Netflix’s “The Crown” should end now as it’s no longer a historical drama. The actor portrayed Queen Elizabeth II’s younger sister Princess Margaret in the third and fourth seasons of the Netflix royal drama, taking over the role from Venessa Kirby. The fifth season of “The Crown” launched in November 2022 and brought the show out of the past and into more recent events as it covered the royal family during the 1990s. Lesley Manville starred as Princess Margaret.
“I should be careful here too, but I don’t think they should carry on, actually,” Bonham Carter said. I’m in it and I loved my episodes, but it’s very different now. When ‘The Crown’ started it was a historic drama, and now it’s crashed into the present. But that’s up to them.”
Bonham Carter also turned down a question about Prince Harry’s buzzy new memoir, “Spare,” saying, “I don’t really want to contribute to the whole thing. It’s complicated and it’ll get taken out of context. And I think it’s been given enough attention.”
While Bonham Carter thinks “The Crown” should call it quits, the show is set to return for a sixth and planned final season that will cover the late 1990s and bring the show into the early 2000s.
Back in 2021, Bonham Carter also came out against “The Crown” over whether Netflix should add a disclaimer to the series telling viewers it’s historical fiction. Recent seasons of the show have faced backlash and intense scrutiny from family and friends of the British royals for its dramatization of events, most notably the toxic marriage between Princess Diana and Prince Charles. There’s been an ongoing debate over adding a disclaimer to “The Crown.” U.K. politician Oliver Dowden notably urged Netflix to add a disclaimer, with Bonham Carter later agreeing and saying the show had a “moral responsibility” to do so.
“It is dramatized,” Bonham Carter said on an official podcast for the series. “I do feel very strongly, because I think we have a moral responsibility to say, ‘Hang on guys, this is not… it’s not a drama-doc, we’re making a drama.’ So they are two different entities.”
Five seasons of “The Crown” are now streaming on Netflix. The show’s sixth season does not yet have a release date.
From Variety US