Paige Hunter Blog

I am an ardent royal-watcher and Kate Middleton aficionada. (“Freak” may be more apt—I own a QVC replica of her engagement ring.) So Broadway’s new “future history play” is a fever dream come true. Like royal fan-fic unfolding onstage, King Charles III imagines the chaos that might upend the royal family after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, ushering the audience behind Buckingham Palace walls with portrayals of Charles, Camilla, William, Harry, Kate—and, yes, the ghost of Diana—that are so brilliant, they border on eerie.

But the play, which premieres on Broadway on November 1 after a successful, Olivier Award–winning run on London’s West End, is captivating even for those who don’t know Kate Middleton’s preferred brand of nude heel. At once political, chilling, funny, and self-aware, the play is Shakespeare (even written in iambic pentameter) with a dash of The Daily Mail.

A shiny gem (a sizable sapphire, specifically) among the cast is Lydia Wilson, the 31-year-old British actress who positively nails the role of Kate Middleton, from the voluminous shampoo-commercial hair to the stately side-eye. But Wilson and playwright Mike Bartlett don’t stop there: Their iteration of Kate Middleton is far more brains than beauty, a stealth feminist hero and the intelligence behind the Kensington Palace operation. Vogue spoke with Wilson about channeling the Duchess—and that controversial Diana ghost.

You captured the essence of Kate Middleton so well, it’s almost eerie. How did you prepare?

Wow. My first thought when you say that is that a huge amount of it happens in that magical place in the audience’s imagination. Because these people are so in our cultural DNA, I feel like we as actors just do enough to give the audience’s imagination permission to project onto it. In terms of technical stuff, I’ve gotten to watch the few but really fascinating times that she’s spoken in public. I usually wear these massive high heels that are the same brand that she wears. And then there’s just a few mannerisms, like how she touches her ring finger over her other hand. I look at a picture of her sometimes before going onstage, and then I just sign over to her. Sometimes I really do feel like her, that she kind of comes through from somewhere.

In watching those interviews, what struck you the most about her?

The thing I keep chasing is this sense of grace that radiates out of her. I was just watching again this morning, her wedding vows and one of her interviews, and my instinct is that she’s just thoroughly good and kind. That’s the quality that I find really lovely to have, sort of, to keep me company. That’s something that was also confirmed when I spoke to a friend of mine who was in the year below Kate at school. Kate was assigned to look after her when she joined the school, and Kate and her whole family would apparently go to all my friend’s plays and concerts. She said the headline is that they were a really, really ethical family who believed in the power of being kind.

I want to get this out of the way and I don’t want this to be the focus of our conversation, but you really nail her hair. How is that achieved?

Oh, my God, you made my day, because they emailed this morning about hair and whether we need to cut it and this and that, and I’m really happy to hear that it looks good. We put it in rollers before the show, and then again at the end we put it back in rollers to maintain the bounce. My hair hangs kind of limply, but once the wizards backstage get their hands on it—there it is. We’re chasing the big curl, and there are many conversations going back and forth. But I’m so happy that it’s reading.

So I’m not the only crazy person to ask about it?

Oh, God, it’s the obsession. I remember when I did it in London, other actors would pass messages from their phones and be like, “So-and-so was in here the other night and they just want to know: Is it all your own hair?” It’s all my own hair.

You’re British. How did you feel about Kate Middleton and the royals coming in to this play?

It’s been an awakening. I don’t think that I ever had any negative emotions toward them, but I wouldn’t say that I had many emotions at all toward them. I suppose that, intellectually and politically, I found it to be a bit of a hypocrisy, having equality between all peoples and then having this hierarchy. But it didn’t impact my life at all. With Kate, I had a feeling of “I just wouldn’t have wanted that for my life,” so I didn’t quite understand her. Growing up—I’m pretty much the same age as her—I had my own hopes and dreams, and they didn’t tally with hers. I never wanted to dress up as a princess. I used to paint myself red and dress up as a monster.

This iteration of Kate Middleton that you bring to life is a shrewd political operative. She’s the brains behind the royal operation. Do you think any of that could be true? Might she be a secret feminist icon?

I read a Newsweek Europe article or something that said that in charity board meetings or planning events, she is very vocal. And it’s consistent with her family, who are self-made business people, and her mother, who I’m sure is extremely creative, because she created this multimillion-pound business from her kitchen table. So I’m sure that Kate’s grown up with that sense of can-do and sense of industry. I don’t know whether she’s exactly the flavor of operator that we’ve created in the play, but I think that woman has brains. I love her stamina and grounded-ness in order to cope with the strange job she has.

You do a very affecting soliloquy in which Kate says that the public underestimates her. It alludes to the fact that there is painstaking attention paid to her every outfit and every cut of her bangs, but nothing deeper. How do you feel about the scrutiny she receives?

I feel like in our interpretation, those things, her image, become an extremely useful mask. She is the alpha operator that is pulling the puppet strings behind the mask, and she has that very shrewd awareness that contemporary culture is about images—simple, readable silhouettes that gather eyeballs, because they are captivating, and therefore gather power. Choices can be made about how to use that power once you have people’s attention. It’s been an interesting exercise in thinking about how brands work.

Do you have any sense of feedback from Kate Middleton or any of the royals on what she might think of the play and your performance?

Oh, man, not a peep. I’m pretty sure that for legal reasons, someone from the Palace would have had to come and check it out under the radar when we first did it in London. But no direct feedback, which I guess is very consistent with their brand, which is, “Say nothing. Let all this heat wash over and just remain constant.” And then, I think, they triumph over whatever impressions other people put out there of them. But I do worry. I feel bad sometimes.

Why?

I don’t know—they’re alive and well. There’s a kind of hubris or something about it. But at the same time, I also feel like the queen’s face is on all the money, and it’s not the queen, it’s her image. And that’s what we’re doing. We’re just riffing with their images rather than in any way trying to rip them off or betray them.

There is a Diana ghost in the play. Do you think that’s tasteful?

Well, I think that is the most controversial aspect about it. I quite like that we have an ambiguous female figure who is able to manipulate, dramaturgically, the men. She’s like an oracle, and she gives the same reading to both the King and William: “You’ll be the greatest King we ever had.” And I kind of enjoy that she’s this specter that haunts their conscience and they both conjure her. I have such love for Diana, and when she died, I was completely devastated. I don’t feel it’s disrespectful, actually. I also like how it’s a Shakespearean trope, having a ghost. But I do know that other people have been disturbed by it.

It seems the actress who plays the Diana ghost, Sally Scott, did so much work to capture her. The tenor of [Scott’s] voice and the way she walked, sweeping her foot along the floor, felt so real.

I watched her do that in a run-through a couple weeks ago, and I got complete shivers up and down my body because there was a moment when I really felt that the actual Diana kind of flickered into the room for a minute. It was really chilling.

How do you think Americans will receive the play compared with Britons?

I felt on the very first night, the first preview that we did here, that there was an uncomplicated, intelligent generosity toward the play, whereas in England I felt somewhat more on trial—guilty until proven innocent. But Americans seem to have curiosity and, I felt, lots of goodwill, toward [the royals]. I hate to generalize, but it’s a very, very pleasurable experience doing it for an American audience, and it made me realize by contrast what a complicated evening it was in England. If it were done about a family that America is very directly invested in, like the Obamas or the Clintons, maybe it would be a very complicated evening here.

You’ve had friends in common [with Kate]. You’re both British. You could meet Kate some day. What would you say to her?

Oh, man, I wonder. I think I’d talk really, really quietly and just let her talk. I think I’ve done enough of the talking for her.

http://www.graziaprom.co.uk/backless-prom-dresses

You should also see:

http://poloves.com/share/249099