After reenacting the infamous ‘Camillagate’ controversy for “The Crown,” Dominic West felt “great sympathy” for King Charles and his now-wife, Queen Consort Camilla.
In 1993, an intimate conversation between the then-Prince of Wales and his lover was recorded years before it was made public, and the 53-year-old actor admitted revisiting the call, in which the now-king told Camilla he wanted to “live inside” her trousers but it would be his good fortune to be reincarnated as a tampon, has given him a new perspective on the controversy.
West, who portrays Charles in the upcoming fifth season of the royal drama, told “Entertainment Weekly”: “I recall thinking it was something so odious and profoundly, deeply unpleasant” (at the time).
“Looking back on it and having to act it out, you realize that these two individuals, two lovers having a private talk, were not to blame.
“It is now evident how intrusive and repulsive the press’s coverage was, as they printed it down verbatim and anyone could call a hotline to listen to the actual tape.
It gave me a great deal of compassion for the two of them and what they had been through.
Both West and Olivia Williams, who portrays Camilla, were eager to portray the pair as sympathetically as possible.
He stated, “(Olivia is) really intelligent, extremely straightforward, and she had an instantaneous sympathy for Camilla, which I genuinely shared. We each felt a desire to do right by our respective characters.
We thought that the odds were slightly stacked against their relationship, and we wished to portray it as sympathetically as possible.
The forthcoming episodes will also deal with the loss of Prince Charles’s late ex-wife Princess Diana, and West emphasized that the subject will be handled delicately.
“It’s a hell of a season since it deals with Diana’s death and horrifying events, such as having to tell your boys the news,” he remarked.
“I have two boys of that age, so there’s a tremendous duty to get it right, which I believe we all take seriously.”
The actor of “The Affair” had early doubts about joining the show, primarily because he was hesitant to follow Josh O’Connor in the role.
He stated, “I told him, ‘You’ve got the wrong guy; I don’t resemble him at all.’
“I was very aware of Josh’s incredible performance and success, and I felt it would be a disgrace not to attempt to follow in his footsteps.
“I contemplated it for several weeks, and it was one of those things that I couldn’t get out of my mind. I realized that if you don’t give it a shot, you would regret it.
“Charles is a wonderful man with a fascinating life and a fascinating job. I mean, apart from anything else, it’s a massive program, and the first four seasons were my favorites.
I realized that I could happily spend two years with this character.