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Helena Bonham Carter Thinks The Crown Has a ‘Moral Responsibility’ to Be Labeled As Fiction

Photo: Courtesy of Netflix

The United Kingdom’s secretary of culture just got an unlikely new ally. Helena Bonham Carter, who purrs and smokes as The Crown’s second Princess Margaret, has stated in a new podcast interview that she believes the show should work harder to clarify to viewers that “our version” and the “real version” of the British monarchy are vastly different entities, as if all of those behind-closed-palace-doors scenes weren’t obvious signifiers already. “It is dramatized,” she said, per the New York Post. “I do feel very strongly, because I think we have a moral responsibility to say, ‘Hang on guys, this is not … it’s not a drama-doc, we’re making a drama.’ So they are two different entities.” Bonham Carter’s words come days after Oliver Dowden, the aforementioned U.K. secretary, argued that The Crown “should be very clear at the beginning” that it’s a “beautifully produced work of fiction” and not, say, an accurate or Windsor-approved look at how punchable Prince Charles used to be. Because … so punchable.

Helena Bonham Carter Weighs in on The Crown Fiction Debate