Kristen Stewart Cast As Princess Diana In Spencer

The title, Spencer, refers to Diana’s maiden name before she became Princess Diana.

By Rick Gonzales | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Kristen Stewart

Actress Kristen Stewart has been an actress for more than 20 years. She’s been in popular movies ranging from Zathura: A Space Adventure to Adventureland, from Jumper to her most recent Underwater. Of course, Stewart is most famously known for playing Bella Swan in the Twilight franchise. But during her career, Stewart has also portrayed a few famous real and non-real people such as Snow White, Joan Jett, and Jean Seberg. Stewart looks to continue this trend as she has just signed on to portray Princess Diana in the upcoming drama Spencer.

Pablo Larraín will be in charge of bringing this story to life. Larraín was last behind the camera for the 2016 biopic Jackie, for which actress Natalie Portman was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. The script was written by Steven Knight, who has himself a nice resume, with movies such as Dirty Pretty Things, Eastern Promises, and The Girl in the Spider’s Web.

The title, Spencer, refers to Diana’s maiden name before she became Princess Diana and there is some hint as to what the movie will cover. There is also more than a hint as to what it won’t cover. What it won’t cover is Diana’s horribly tragic death but instead, it will cover the eroding relationship between Charles and Diana, as both were marred in extramarital affairs and the unending love she had for her two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

Princess Diana

As Larraín told Deadline, the story “covers a critical weekend in the early 1990s when Diana decided her marriage to Prince Charles wasn’t working and that she needed to veer from a path that put her in line to one day be queen.”

It will encompass three days, centering around one of Princess Diana’s final Christmas holidays she spent at the House of Windsor. Larraín continued, “It’s only three days of her life and in that very small amount of time, you’re able to get into a wider, bigger perspective of who she was. We all know her fate, what happened to her, and we don’t need to go there. We’ll stay in this more intimate space where she could express where she wants to go and who she wants to be.”

The casting of Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana has raised a few eyebrows as many immediately relate the actress to her time as Bella. Somehow, fans her body of work doesn’t translate to a more serious role. Perhaps there are some out there who haven’t seen her turn as Jean Seberg.

Larraín explained his casting of Stewart to Deadline. “Kristen is one of the great actors around today,” Larraín said. “To do this well, you need something very important in film, which is mystery. Kristen can be many things, and she can be very mysterious and very fragile an ultimately very strong as well, which is what we need. The combination of those elements made me think of her. The way she responded to the script and how she is approaching the character, it’s very beautiful to see. I think she’s going to do something stunning and intriguing at the same time. She is this force of nature.”

With further casting still in the process, production for Spencer is not expected to begin until sometime in 2021.