Helena Bonham Carter on ‘The Crown’. Des Willie/Netflix
Ready to close the chapter. After starring as Princess Margaret on The Crown in seasons 3 and 4, Helena Bonham Carter doesn’t believe the Netflix drama should continue.
“I should be careful here too, but I don’t think they should carry on, actually,” the Harry Potter actress, 56, told The Guardian in an interview published on Sunday, January 29. “I’m in it and I loved my episodes, but it’s very different now.”
She continued: “When The Crown started it was a historic drama, and now it’s crashed into the present. But that’s up to them.”
The Crown, helmed by Peter Morgan, premiered in November 2016 and chronicled the years of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign following her June 1953 coronation. Claire Foy and Matt Smith played young versions of the late queen and Prince Philip, who died in 2022 and 2021, respectively. By season 3, Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies had taken over the roles. Margaret, Elizabeth’s younger sister who died in 2002, was played by Vanessa Kirby in the first two seasons with Bonham Carter stepping in during the third season, which was released in November 2019.
“Well, actually, the real Margaret didn’t mind about being number two, but she did mind being really short,” the Sweeney Todd actress told The Guardian on Sunday about portraying the late Countess of Snowden. “She was just 5 [feet tall], so there was something in her posture to maximize every little millimeter. She had her car seat elevated so she could be seen.”
Marion Bailey and Helena Bonham Carter on ‘The Crown’. Des Willie/Netflix
She added: “And a lot of it was the need not to be overlooked, probably prompted by her great-grandmother saying something about the fact that she was tiny. And that scarred her. It’s funny what we carry – a complex that can govern all our behavior.”
Bonham Carter, previously opened up about the Crown amid criticism about how it portrayed factual events.
“It is dramatized. 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,’” the Alice in Wonderland star said during an episode of “The Crown: The Official Podcast” in November 2020. “So, they are two different entities.”
The Netflix drama — which is currently filming season 6 starring Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce — debuted season 5 last November amid backlash surrounding the story lines’ accuracy. Dame Judi Dench even publicly implored the streaming giant to add a fictional disclaimer to the season 5 introduction. Netflix ultimately complied, noting in a statement that The Crown is a “fictional dramatization” of the story of Her Majesty.
“I thought it was ridiculous. I mean, it is a drama. It’s not a documentary. That’s been said about 10 million times. Not everything in it is going to be authentic,” Princess Diana’s biographer, Andrew Morton, exclusively told Us Weekly later in November 2022. “[Watching the episodes] was like being transported back in time It was quite unnerving, quite frankly, because the woman who plays Diana — Elizabeth Debicki — absolutely nailed everything about her mannerisms, her gestures, her speech patterns. … I was kind of shaking really with the verisimilitude of it all.”
The Crown’s sixth and final season is currently in production, though a premiere date has not yet been announced.