Yes, you heard it. Bella Swan herself is joining the royal family in this upcoming biopic by “Jackie” director Pablo Larraín.
On June 17, Deadline broke the news that Kristen Stewart is set to play Princess Diana in the new film, “Spencer”—Princess Diana’s family name before she married Prince Charles. The story takes place during one of her final Christmas holidays in the ’90s at the Windsor family’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England. It highlights the crucial point when Princess Diana decided to separate from Prince Charles and realized that she needed to back out of royal life. The film’s production is expected to begin in early 2021.
In an interview with Deadline, Larraín said that he took an interest in this story as an opposite to the fairytale trope in fictional literature.
“We all grew up, at least I did in my generation, reading and understanding what a fairy tale is,” Larraín told Deadline. “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.”
Larraín decided to cast Stewart because he wanted someone “very mysterious and very fragile and ultimately very strong as well” to play “one of the most famous women in the world at her moment of great moment existential crisis.” He didn’t want the film to focus on Princess Diana’s death, but on her decaying relationship with her husband and her great love for her sons.
While Larraín saw Stewart’s potential from growing out of the Twilight saga films to taking on more diverse and unpredictable roles in independent films, some royal family experts claimed that the American actress is not fit to play a distinguished British woman like Princess Diana. U.K. media correspondent and author of “The A to Z of Harry and Meghan” Neil Sean criticized the film for taking on an old story and the casting being out of tune with “what the public’s image and above all love for such a great lady is.”
Despite what many critics have to say about the film and its casting, we’ll be getting a new side of Kristen Stewart that we just can’t wait to see.
Screengrab from “Charlie’s Angels” official trailer
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