Pablo Larrain mentions Kristen + Jacqueline Durran and Steve Knight talk 'Spencer' at the Deadline Contender panel in London - 9 October 2021

Spencer was never going to be a traditional biopic, Contenders Film: London heard, as writer Steven Knight and costume designer Jacqueline Durran took to the stage and director Pablo Larraín joined virtually from Chile. “I had a strong belief we didn’t want to do a biopic,” said Knight. “The cleanest way to get into a person is to put them in a pressure cooker… we’ve all been with family we don’t want to be with at Christmas.”

Larraín praised star Kristen Stewart, saying, “We all think we know a lot about Diana… But as a person, she was mysterious and Kristen can do that very well. I thought she was going to be a different version that would take us to another angle of Diana’s character. She did very beautiful work.”

Spencer was never going to be a traditional biopic, Contenders Film: London heard, as writer Steven Knight and costume designer Jacqueline Durran took to the stage and director Pablo Larraín joined virtually from Chile. “I had a strong belief we didn’t want to do a biopic,” said Knight. “The cleanest way to get into a person is to put them in a pressure cooker… we’ve all been with family we don’t want to be with at Christmas.”

Larraín praised star Kristen Stewart, saying, “We all think we know a lot about Diana… But as a person, she was mysterious and Kristen can do that very well. I thought she was going to be a different version that would take us to another angle of Diana’s character. She did very beautiful work.”

Jacqueline Durran said that representing Diana’s fashion choices was “quite a task” and that “it was a forensic operation to work out what themes we would find in her style.”

Larrain’s reimagining of a Royal Christmas at Sandringham journeys into the mind of a lonely and disturbed Princess Diana as she navigates the “house rules” during the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles. Written by Steven Knight (Locke), the story follows the strict regimen of the princess’s wardrobe, endless formal family meals and a dramatic pheasant shoot, punctuated by Diana’s anxiety attacks and imaginings of ill-fated queens past. Jack Farthing, Sally Hawkins, Timothy Spall and Sean Harris also star.

Source: Deadline