The Crown: Olivia Colman told she walks 'like a farmer' while preparing for Queen role

‘They have been teaching me how to walk – I’m really terrible at that’

Olivia Colman has revealed she was told she walked “like a farmer” while preparing for her role as the Queen in Netflix’s The Crown.

The Oscar-winning actor told Harper’s Bazaar UK that she struggled to walk, talk and sit in the manner of Elizabeth II, and did not “enjoy research” for new projects but had to accept it for this role.

“I can't just sit like me, I have to sit like her, and look like pictures of her,” she said. “They have been teaching me how to walk - I'm really terrible at that.”

Even the Queen’s accent proved difficult: “I thought that general 'posh' would do it, but apparently not,” Colman said.

“Really unusual vowel sounds. If you're saying 'yes', you say 'ears'. It's fun to do, isn't it? Very hard to stop. Ears.”

Colman is taking over the role from Claire Foy, who starred in the first two seasons of The Crown opposite Matt Smith, who will be replaced by Tobias Menzies for the new season, which is set between 1964 to 1977.

In the same interview, Colman was asked about the pay dispute after it was revealed that Foy was being paid less than Smith, which the show’s creators said was due to Smith’s status as a Doctor Who star.

Asked about being paid as much as her co-star and on-screen husband Menzies, Colman said: “I bloody well hope so.

“It's not called Philip, it's called The Crown.”

Also starring in the new season of The Crown are Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret (taking over from Vanessa Kirby), Ben Daniels as Tony Armstrong (taking over from Matthew Goode), and Josh O’Connor as the Prince of Wales. Jason Watkins will play prime minister Harold Wilson, and Gillian Anderson has been cast as Margaret Thatcher.

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The November issue of Harper’s Bazaar is released on 3 October.