In one of the most instantly controversial — and hotly anticipated — casting choices of 2020, Chilean director Pablo Larraín picked Kristen Stewart to portray Princess Diana in his new biopic, Spencer. The film started principal photography in England this week with an eye towards a late fall release, and Larraín has released a first look photo of the Happiest Season star modeling the late Princess of Wales’s royal fashions and hairstyle.
Her mournful expression teases the film’s storyline, which unfolds over Christmas in 1991, when the relationship between Diana and Charles is at one of its lowest points. On holiday with the royal family at the Sandringham Estate, she tries to maintain a brave exterior, even as life as she’s known it is on the cusp of seismic change.
Speaking with Deadline last year, Larraín characterized the script by Oscar-nominated writer, Steven Knight, as deconstructing the fairy tale romance that Diana and Charles tried to live in front of the camera following their 1981 wedding. “Usually, the prince comes and finds the princess, invites her to become his wife and eventually she becomes queen. That is the fairy tale. When someone decides not to be the queen, and says, ‘I’d rather go and be myself,’ it’s a big, big decision, a fairy tale upside down. I’ve always been very surprised by that and thought it must have been very hard to do. That is the heart of the movie.”