Dominic West reveals why he couldn’t turn down Prince Charles role in The Crown

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Dominic West has shared some insight into making the easy decision to portray Prince Charles in The Crown.

The actor, 56, appeared on screen in the fifth and sixth seasons of the Netflix series, a dramatisation of the British royal family from the 1950s to the early 2000s.

As the then-prince, West portrayed Charles as he reacted to the untimely death of his ex-wife, Princess Diana (played by Elizabeth Debicki), the aftermath, and his eventual wedding to Camilla (played by Olivia Williams).

On Friday’s edition (5 January) of The Graham Norton Show, West spoke about accepting the role of the monarch.

“There was an enormous pressure on The Crown because it was such a successful show before I went in, and Josh did such a great job,” he began, referring to Josh O’Connor’s portrayal of a younger Prince Charles in seasons three and four.

“But at the end of the day, you’ve got to do parts that appeal to you; not that many come along,” West continued.

“When you’ve got a juicy part like that, you can’t turn it down. I loved playing him, he was brilliant.”

The actor, also well known for his roles in The Wire and The Affair, went on to reveal some of his failsafe methods for getting into character as Charles, including pointing animatedly as he spoke.

“I saw many documentaries on him, one he did with Jonathan Dimbleby,” West explained.

“He’s on a plane, and he’s talking about, ‘I don’t do this for my own good, you know – I do this for jolly old Britain.’

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“And it was so funny, ‘jolly old Britain’, every time I was trying to get into him on set, I’d just go ‘jolly old Britain’. And I was in.”

Previously, West had expressed that he’d accepted the unlikeliness of receiving a knighthood in the future, due to his involvement in the programme.

“I suppose having to forgo the British Empire Medal that I might have got for services to acting,” he said on BBC Radio. “It was alright for [Prince Philip actor Jonathan Pryce], who had already been knighted.”

West explained that he’d met Charles before being cast as the royal, saying: “I have. I’ve done a bit of stuff for the Prince’s Trust so I’ve stood in line and shook his hand a couple of times, so not particularly intimate.”

However, West said that after taking on the role, “those invitations dried up”.