‘The ultimate mother’: How the actors who’ve played her viewed Queen Elizabeth II
The death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday at age 96 spurred an immediate outpouring of mourning and memories throughout the United Kingdom and around the globe. But Elizabeth, who marked 70 years on the throne this year, didn’t simply make herself known to the public through radio addresses and Christmas greetings. The media’s fascination with the woman behind the carefully cultivated persona also led to a raft of fictional portrayals of the queen that sought to understand her, and her relationship to crown and country, more intimately.
From the actors who’ve played her at different ages in Netflix’s “The Crown” to Helen Mirren, who won an Oscar for her role as Elizabeth in the 2006 film “The Queen,” here’s what thespians who’ve studied Britain’s longest-serving monarch most closely had to say about what they learned from the experience.
