The crown star Josh O’Connor talks about the challenges he faced following the success of the hit historical drama series on Netflix.
In a recent interview with GQperformed prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, the actor, who played Prince Charles, admitted that he initially didn’t want to audition for the show, but after reading the script for a specific scene in season three, he changed his mind .
O’Conner made his debut midway through season three as the eldest son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, then co-starred with Emma Corrin’s Princess Diana in season four. His performance also earned him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor.
But playing one of the most notable members of the British royal family on the show also brought with it a level of notoriety — something O’Connor wasn’t particularly fond of.
“It was a rotten time. I thought it was so impressive that people stopped me,” he told the outlet. “You want to participate in things that are successful and seen, but I think sometimes we underestimate how powerful even a small loss of anonymity can be.”
The Challengers actor previously told The Hollywood reporter in a 2021 interview, he thinks that if season four hadn’t been released during the COVID-19 lockdowns, there would have been a gradual increase in the number of people who would see him in public. “But due to COVID, suddenly we’re all out of lockdown and… it’s a real shock to the system,” he said at the time. “I used to not be recognized at all, and now I am. It’s so weird!”
While you talk to GQ, he added that amid all the success he’s achieved in recent years, he looks back on a time when he worked on smaller film and TV projects. He said, “Which I did earlier in my career The crown – I just wanted to continue with that.”
