Vanessa Kirby played the role of Princess Margaret on the Netflix series The Crown for two seasons, but the time has come to pass the baton to Helena Bonham Carter for Season 3 of the hit series about Queen Elizabeth. Kirby says that she can’t imagine passing the role onto anyone better suited.
Town & Country says that Vanessa was the one who hinted on Instagram that Helena got the plum role.
“It’s funny because I bumped into her at a play and I knew she got the part at that point. She made her mom take pictures of us, and she sent me the pictures. I put one on Instagram because of course I was really honored!”
Kirby says it was only after she posted the photo that The Crown production told her that the information was not public yet. Oops.
“And then I get a message from someone on the show going like, ‘We haven’t announced it yet.’ Oh, shit. So I’m like, ‘Oh no, what do I do?!’ They’re like, ‘Don’t say anything else!’”
Soon after, it was made public that Helena Bonham Carter would be the next Princess Margaret and Tobias Menzies would play Prince Philip.
#TheCrown ’s Vanessa Kirby loves new Princess Margaret actress Helena Bonham Carter: “We text all the time” https://t.co/sYLa87gxF4 pic.twitter.com/PdqCEDpkWW
— Radio Times (@RadioTimes) June 20, 2018
But after the chance meeting at the play, the two bonded and started comparing notes about Princess Margaret and those little touches that make the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth come to life.
“Mainly we’ve been discussing her essence, really. She’s really tried to capture the essence of Margaret, rather than copy me. Not that she would anyway. [ Laughs. ] Oscar-nominated actress! Her process is very much similar to mine. She asks for my playlists, my scripts, my notes. We just text about our love for Margaret nonstop, little anecdotes and stories like that.”
Vanessa Kirby parlayed the role of Princess Margaret into the awards show scene, becoming more of a household name, and Helena Bonham Carter is excited about her turn.
The Hollywood Reporter asked Kirby if she had any trepidations about taking the role of Princess Margaret knowing that she would have to hand it over to another actor after two seasons. But Vanessa says that she knew she was responsible for playing the role of the younger princess.
“The more research I did, I realized my responsibility was to find the little girl and the fragility behind the woman who had become really hard.”
And Kirby adds that there are no hard feelings at all; in fact, she and Helena Bonham Carter have developed a serious texting relationship.
“We text each other all the time, and she sends me photos and wants my scripts and notes and playlists. I think she’s going to take Margaret up a level. She sent me a photo of her and [new queen] Olivia [Colman] making silly faces like, ‘We’ve got the baton, but I think we’ve dropped it.’”
