Yahoo News The Crown stars Ed McVey and Meg Bellamy wanted to give ‘truthful’ portrayals of Prince William and Kate
The final season of the Netflix show premieres on 14 December
Watch: The Crown actors Ed McVey and Meg Bellamy discuss playing Prince William and Kate Middleton
Prince William and Kate Middleton are some of the most recognisable figures in British pop culture, and history, but for The Crown actors Ed McVey and Meg Bellamy bringing their love story to life was all about being "truthful" they tell Yahoo UK.
Their real life counterparts connected during their time at the University of St Andrews, first meeting there in 2001, where they were both student residents at St Salvator's Hall. The pair began their relationship in 2003 which was closely followed by the media, and they got engaged in 2010 and married at Westminster Abbey in 2011. They now share three children together, George, Charlotte and Louis.
While the public know their story and how it developed, McVey and Bellamy were keen to not bring too much of their own knowledge of the couple to their performances, as the show only focuses on the early years of their relationship.
"There's not actually loads of information really because it was a very private moment between them and there was a whole [attempt of] trying to agree with the press at the time to not intrude so much on William's private life," McVey says.
"Actually there wasn't that much on their relationship in terms of when they got together and everything, there's bits and bobs, and tonnes of stuff they've spoken about later.
"But I think what the most exciting bit for me, and I hope both of us, was — because we know where they end up — trying to crunch up that timeline as much as possible and put so many barriers.
"Until that final moment you don't know how those two are gonna get together, it seems like it's just gone wrong and that is very exciting and very truthful."Ed McVey
"It's never smooth sailing with these initial relationships, always up, down, left, right. So [it was about] just crunching up the timeline and making it truthful and real, that was amazing."
Bellamy added that she found it easier to focus on the fact that her real-life counterpart "didn't know" what was going to happen with the relationship, and so she wanted to embrace that.
"I definitely did a lot of research and a lot of watching them, but I think only focusing on the time period that's happened and nowhere past 2004 or 2005," Bellamy says.
"What was really helpful for me was because she doesn't know if she ends up with William really, let alone marries him or becomes a royal, it was useful for me to play it like you don't know, and iit's kind of nice to play that what if? That tension and the friction, everything like that is very exciting."
She adds: "Of course the research team, they send a an amazing amount of like a wealth of of stuff, but similarly you don't have to take everything because it's all there on the page, in the script so that's kind of nice to simplify it."
Their time in the roles has meant that the actors are keen to take a step back from being too invested with their real-life counterparts now, though.
"I try not to follow them as much now because I still see it through a filming lens where I'm like what mannerism is she doing?" Bellamy says.
"Did I get that or the way she said that vowel did I remember that or did I get that wrong?"Meg Bellamy
"As much as it's hard to avoid them cause we live in Britain and they're everywhere, it's better for me to say goodbye to the character and treat it as that, but it was an amazing time."
The Crown season 6 part 2 premieres on Netflix on Thursday, 14 December.
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