Emmy Winner Elizabeth Debicki On Honor Of Playing Princess Diana

Elizabeth Debicki in "The Crown."

Long before her Emmy victory Sunday, The Crown star Elizabeth Debicki said she already felt like a winner with the rare opportunity to play Princess Diana.

Debicki won the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her turn as the iconic royal in Netflix’s The Crown at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards, which were handed out in Los Angeles. Debicki was nominated in the same category for the 2023 Emmys.

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In a Zoom conversation ahead of her nomination and eventual win, Debicki told me that the true victory came with the opportunity to help people understand who Princess Diana was later in her life before her tragic death on August 31, 1997, at age 36.

“The job was a huge challenge for me and the most satisfying work I’ve ever been given the opportunity to do in my career,” Debicki said in June. “It was the right-sized challenge for what I was consciously and unconsciously waiting for. I felt that when I was let out of the gate, I was ready to do the work. Jobs like this are very, very rare, to have so many layers in the challenge.”

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Perhaps the most exciting aspect of embodying Princess Diana for Debicki is how viewers have embraced her portrayal—sometimes in the literal sense.

“I loved playing her. I really, really loved playing the part,” Debicki enthused. “Every now and then, the way that people respond to it is totally unique to me. The main thing I get is that people want a hug. I was on an American Airlines flight the other day and I met a very lovely hostess who was so sweet to me and said, ‘Can I have a hug?’ That’s what I get a lot.”

The Crown was nominated for 18 Emmy Awards in the Drama Series category for Sunday’s Emmys, including Outstanding Drama Series.

The sixth and final season of The Crown also went into ceremony with nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress for Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II, Outstanding Lead Actor for Dominic West as Prince Charles, Outstanding Supporting Actor for Jonathan Pryce as Prince Phillip and Outstanding Supporting Actress for Lesley Manville.

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Claire Foy was also nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress for reprising her role as the young Queen Elizabeth II.

In addition to Elizabeth Debicki’s win for Outstanding Supporting Actress, the final season of The Crown also took home Emmys for Outstanding Contemporary Costumes and Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program.

In total, The Crown ended its Emmy run with 24 wins out of 87 nominations, including a win for Outstanding Drama Series in 2021.

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