Matt Smith on 'The Crown' Season 2
Just as last week's glorious real-life royal drama is finally simmering down, Netflix's ravishing royal adaptation The Crown is gearing up for its second season, which will cover another decade of Buckingham Palace goings-on from 1956 through 1964. The season is bookended by major political disasters in the U.K., beginning with the Suez Crisis, an illegal war in Egypt ordered by Prime Minister Anthony Eden, and ending with the Profumo affair, a sex scandal which indirectly brought down Eden's successor, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.
But as the intimate, intense opening episode makes clear, Elizabeth and Philip's fraught marriage will be a more central source of conflict this season than Parliament. It open with Philip heading out on a lengthy overseas tour (one Elizabeth was advised to send him on, in the hopes of keeping him out of trouble) which, unsurprisingly, leaves the couple more estranged than ever before. And Philip, having been very much a supporting character in Season 1 - acting intermittently as a supportive partner and a petulant foil to the newly-coronated Elizabeth - gets some surprising development and back story this time around.
BAZAAR.com caught up with Matt Smith to discuss Philip's roguish appeal, playing the prince's interactions with the Kennedys, and being recast after Season 2.
Harper's BAZAAR: As a Brit, I was pretty astonished by how much I learned from the first season of The Crown, even about events that seem well-known. Did you have the same experience?
Matt Smith: Absolutely. When my agent sent me the first season scripts, I went, "Look, the problem is that we already know what happens." But I read all 1o in one sitting and realized no, actually, there’s so much I don’t know about the history of my own country. I didn’t know there was a Great Smog! That’s even more true in Season 2 with Philip, because we really look into his history. We go back and see him when he's young, and it's fascinating to see what he went through. Peter [Morgan, the show's creator] is so clever at finding unique angles on stories that we think we know, which is why I think the Diana stuff, and the Margaret Thatcher stuff, will be so fascinating.
HB: Philip has been - and remains - a divisive figure in England, and some of his behavior in Season 2 is pretty caddish, to put it politely. How do you feel about him?
MS: I have great affection for Philip now that I’ve looked into him and tried to tell the truth about him. Obviously I want to be respectful of the fact that they are the royal family and they're still around, but I find Philip fascinating because he’s so conflicted and he’s so... male. There’s such a maleness and a roguishness about him which I found endearing, but which particularly in the modern age is not that popular.
HB: The news that the entire show would be recast after Season 2 came as a pretty big shock to viewers last year. But I assume you signed on with that as a prerequisite?
MS: Yeah, I'm not sure me and Claire [Foy] would have done it if we had been signing on for six seasons. It’s one of the reasons I think this show can really be something special, because it’s very difficult to retain an active interest over six years and keep doing a good job with the same role. It was the same with Doctor Who - it’s difficult not to repeat the patterns you have in your emotional makeup. But I mean, think of the moments they've got coming up. Thatcher! Princess Diana! You've got the Clintons, Tony Blair, the Iraq War… I think if they pull this off, it'll be extraordinary.
HB: The U.K.-U.S. relationship comes into play in a major way this season, with the royals trying to smooth things over with the Kennedys after the Suez Crisis. How was that to play?
MS: It’s a really interesting episode, because you see the Brits and the Americans just fail to work each other out. On the subject of learning things about history, I had no idea that Kennedy [played by Michael C. Hall] was such a brutal man! But that episode was fun for me because Philip's just obsessed with Jackie. "Oh please, let me sit next to her!" He’s like a horny schoolboy, and the Queen’s like oh, for god’s sake…
I don't think I realized, before doing this show, that the royals were such a big part of the cultural consciousness in the U.S. Obviously I knew they were notorious, but I didn't know that William and Kate were on the front of magazines everywhere. Less so Philip, I don't think Americans know as much about who he is, but it's been interesting. I think Claire and I were both quite shocked by how present they felt here, culturally.
HB: Elizabeth and Philip's marriage really gets put under the microscope this season. Speaking purely for the characters, why do you think their relationship works?
MS: Philip’s such a differed flavor to the rest of the royal family, and that's what I love about him. He's such an alien in that world, he's such an outsider, and that's always interesting to play. Like all great love stories, sometimes she doesn't want to love him but she can't help herself. She loves him even when she's not meant to, and I think there's something about that that's really romantic.
HB: There are a lot of rumors flying around about which royals have and haven't watched the show. Do you know?
MS: I do know! It’s the sort of thing I don't want to be definitive about publicly, but I have heard. Philip hasn’t [watched it], I’m pretty sure, but some have. It’s a very interesting list, let me tell you...
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