The Emmy-nominated actor shares about his experience on the acclaimed series.
Dominic West has been a part of some of the most seminal, groundbreaking television over the last two decades, from crime drama The Wire to the ambiguous storytelling of The Affair, to one of the most acclaimed series in history, The Crown. In Peter Morgan’s 87-time Emmy-nominated imagination of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, West portrays Prince Charles throughout the 1990s and early 2000s as he suffers the breakdown of a marriage, public scandals, loss, and love.
In the series’ final season, Charles faces the most emotional period of his character’s arc: from the tragic loss of Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) to trying to raise his teenage sons to his long-awaited wedding to his love Camilla Parker Bowles (Olivia Williams). West, who has been nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, brings a vulnerability to Charles that highlights what The Crown does best — depicting the inner lives of some of the most private public figures in history.
The actor, also nominated this year for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for his performance, tells of returning to his role as Charles and saying goodbye to the series for a final time.
An edited version of the conversation follows.
Prince Charles (Dominic West)
How did it feel returning to the set of The Crown for the sixth and final season?
Dominic West: Peter Morgan always said that [with previous casts], actors don’t really settle into their roles until the second season and you do feel a certain relief coming back that contrasts quite strongly with the panic you have at the beginning of the first scene of the first season that you do. So it was lovely. It was all the fun of it without so much of the fear.
Is Prince Charles a relatively easy role to step back into?
DW: I worked pretty hard on him before the first season, and then I had the whole season to sort of relax into it. So you do have a few trigger phrases and my main one was based on an interview with him on the plane to Australia where he said, “I just do it for jolly old Britain.” And so I’m doing a lot of scenes with Olivia Williams, who plays Camilla Parker Bowles, and before every scene, she’d go, “Modern democracy” to get into Camilla and I’d go, “Jolly old Britain” and then we’d start the scene. So you get a sort of technique going and it becomes a lot easier.
Does playing a character over several seasons with many hours of screen time make it easier?
DW: I think so. Last season, I was worried about everything and texting Peter madly at five o’clock in the morning, and this season, everything was just much more settled. It is such a relief that it’s already out there and there’s no apprehension about it. I really enjoyed it.
Prince Charles (Dominic West)
What was it like this season, given that there’s a sort of emotional Big Dipper where things go down before finally coming up?
DW: Yeah, there were some really heavy scenes this season and a lot of tears for Charles. And I love crying, so it was great. Then there were a lot of set piece teas at Windsor Castle or Christmas day or family photos or weddings where all of us were there, and they were the biggest joy because you’re in a room with a bunch of people you’ve got to know quite well by this stage and everyone looks like a member of the royal family, so it’s hilarious. Then Imelda walks in and you go, “My god, there’s the queen.” I’m doing a silly sort of voice and everyone else is doing their funny voices and it’s sort of like being in a touring panto show eventually; it’s great.
Interesting you mention Charles crying. Obviously, he’s the definition of a straitlaced, stiff upper lip, and buttoned-up person; when do you choose to let him go a little bit?
DW: All the time. He is very emotional and he’s got real anger, and I think he’s got real sadness to him and real compassion. What’s great about The Crown is that you see these public figures in private, and I suspect in private he’s quite emotional — well that’s the way I played him anyway. I’ve sort of assumed that Charles is an emotional and rather open-hearted guy in spite of his buttoned-up exterior, which he obviously has to have in public.
Prince Charles (Dominic West) and Camilla Parker Bowles (Olivia Williams)
How does it feel to be saying goodbye to The Crown after four years of your life?
DW: Well, I did a play once called, Life Is A Dream by Calderón de la Barca. It’s a famous golden age Spanish play that’s a meditation on kingship and it’s about a prince whose dad, the king, says, “Okay, now we’re gonna see if he’s truly got royal qualities. We’re gonna drug him and take him and fling him in a cave with nothing — no creature comforts, no clothes, and see how he gets on.” I did feel a bit like that [after wrapping]. We’d had York Minster with 350 people bowing as we walked down the aisle on the last day of the shoot. And the last scene we were doing, actually, we drove through the streets of Rochester in Kent in a beautiful ]with 300 people cheering and waving flags with our faces on them.
I mean, I’ll miss everything. I’ll miss the clothes, I’ll miss the cars, I’ll miss the houses, I’ll miss the crowds, and I’ll miss people bowing to me, particularly. I’ve tried to get my kids to do it. My wife said, “Why do you want crowds of people waving flags with your face?” and I was going, “I don’t know! But it was so nice!”
