The Crown’s Kate Middleton on Recreating the Princess’s College Years

When Meg Bellamy realized that she had been forged as Kate Middleton, the world’s most well-known princess, on The Crown, the Brit couldn’t have been in a much less glamorous setting.

She was dressed as a large crimson brick at Legoland Windsor, the place she labored as a mascot—and needed to peel off the costume and head to the supply car parking zone simply to take the name.

Bellamy, who grew up 20 miles from the actual Middleton, had spent months auditioning for the coveted function. After a self-tape, there had been callbacks; in a single, she filmed a scene serving to a college-age Prince William navigate the laundromat. The British actor, whose solely earlier credit score is a brief movie, had even carried out a read-through with the present’s sprawling forged and slate of administrators earlier than being forged.

“I used to be so connected to the function and the anticipation was actual,” says Bellamy. “So once I lastly bought the name, it was an enormous aid.” Not that she might inform her co-workers. She needed to pile again into the crimson Lego uniform and cope with buyer complaints earlier than delivering her discover—solely telling her boss that she had scored “an enormous half.”

Having retired her mascot uniform, Bellamy started getting ready to play the real-life princess by diving right into a analysis packet compiled by Netflix. The actors Ed McVey and Luther Ford, who play The Crown’s Prince William and Harry in the present’s last episodes, had been drowning in video footage of the real-life royals they’d play, since each males had been documented since delivery. However with Middleton, who solely grew to become a public determine in the early aughts when she started courting Prince William, there was a lot much less archival materials obtainable.

So she checked out present-day video footage of Middleton, after which tried to work backwards—imagining how the princess could have sounded and carried herself  about 20 years in the past. “There was plenty of taking how she sounds now, and pitching her voice greater to make her seem youthful, and in addition attempting to take away that layer of being a royal,” says Bellamy. “Taking a look at her now, she’s all the time standing up straight, and really poised and stylish, whereas that was most likely very totally different when there have been no cameras on her. Attempting to take away that layer was a key half.”

Bellamy additionally labored with The Crown’s motion coach Polly Bennett, who makes use of animal imagery to assist actors get into the physicality of their characters. “She gave me this picture of a canine, the setter. They’re very sporty, however they’re additionally very self-aware, have this lengthy flowing hair, and carry themselves in a sure approach,” says Bellamy.

The actor teases that the majority of her character’s scenes happen throughout Middleton’s first yr at St. Andrews College, together with a re-enactment of the 2002 charity trend present wherein Middleton infamously walked carrying a sheer costume. Throughout the precise trend present, Prince William reportedly paid $275 to take a seat in the front-row; in the collection, Middleton’s catwalk second is a romantic turning level for the faculty college students.

Royal watchers will recall the picture of the actual Kate sauntering down the catwalk in the see-through costume—her black bra and underpants seen beneath. In actual fact, the piece—which had been designed as a skirt by scholar designer Charlotte Todd—grew to become so well-known that in 2011 it bought at public sale for $125,000.

“I used to be nervous about [that scene] as a result of it felt like an enormous deal, and filming had felt so relaxed main as much as it,” says Bellamy. “This felt like a looming factor. However the actuality was as quickly as I bought there and understood what the vibe was, it was nice. You had Kylie Minogue blasting, and the crowd was cheering, and the director Erik Richter Strand made it so snug.”

As for carrying the costume, Bellamy stated, “It felt actually particular as a result of it was this iconic look that I knew of rising up.”

The actual Middleton is a pure athlete, and The Crown’s Middleton is depicted swimming throughout her faculty years. “Sports activities had been actually her factor,” says Bellamy, who leaned in direction of musical drama throughout her personal college years. To ensure Bellamy’s freestyle was as much as par for manufacturing, the collection employed swimming instructors to work with the actor. “It was good to do some bodily exercise for this present,” smiles Bellamy. “It retains you match.”

Bellamy says she’s notably happy with the approach Middleton is depicted on the collection—as “her personal particular person on this, in addition to William’s girlfriend,” says Bellamy. “I feel the factor that folks love about Kate in actual life is her self-assuredness, her authenticity, the approach she connects with folks. These had been qualities that Peter bestowed upon the character as properly.”

To play the half, the actor additionally needed to don some questionable aughts fashions—like low-rise denims and tighter-fitting tops. “It was very useful, as a result of as a lot as you assume, ‘Nicely, it’s solely 20 years in the past, the trend can’t have been that totally different. . .it actually was,” says Bellamy. “The low-rise denims change the way you maintain your self, so it was very helpful when it comes to feeling totally different and entering into a personality.”

Then once more, low-rise denims seem to be a simple sartorial dedication in comparison with the unwieldy crimson Lego go well with Bellamy was carrying simply two years in the past. Regardless of her fairytale hiring on The Crown, Bellamy says her Legoland friends are nonetheless “tremendous excited and blissful for me.” And she or he waves off any questions on jealousy, noting of her former co-workers, “They’re all rockstars.”