What The Cast Of The Crown Looks Like In Real Life

Stepping into the role of a royal is no easy feat, and the cast of Netflix's "The Crown" had quite big shoes to fill. For the stars who played the members of the royal Windsor family in the hit historical drama series, properly portraying their character took more than just acting chops — they each had to completely transform into someone else. For some, the hair and makeup required for their character on the show wasn't totally drastic, like Imelda Staunton, who portrayed the oldest version of Queen Elizabeth II in the show's final seasons, or Helena Bonham Carter, who starred as Princess Margaret in Seasons 3 and 4. Neither of them had to stray very far from their real-life appearance, whereas many of the other actors looked entirely different from their usual selves.

Though there may have been some controversy over the historical accuracy of the events shown in "The Crown," the hair, makeup, and wardrobe for the show was frequently spot-on. Like the most iconic Princess Diana outfits that "The Crown" recreated perfectly, the styling team stopped at nothing to turn the actors into their royal counterparts, leaving many of them nearly unrecognizable from their real-life looks. For viewers who are used to seeing the actors in character — wearing tiaras, ballgowns, and period hairstyles — pictures of what the cast members actually look like could be surprising, so let's take a closer look at some of the stars of the show and what they look like in real life.

Elizabeth Debicki played Princess Diana in Seasons 5 and 6 of "The Crown." She was tasked with embodying Diana's elegance, poise, and beauty, all while recreating some of her most memorable style moments, like Princess Diana's famous revenge dress that became one of the most iconic looks in fashion history, or the dark eye makeup from her infamous 1995 BBC interview. The photo on the left shows Debicki during the re-created interview scene, portraying Diana with what appears to be effortless perfection — but behind the scenes, turning into the "People's Princess" required the actor's blood, sweat, and tears. According to hair and makeup designer Cate Hall, it took hours and hours to get the styling of Princess Diana just right. "In terms of fittings, I would say [Debicki's] probably spent upwards of 30 hours in the hair and makeup chair while we do stuff," Hall told ET in 2023. "We probably had at least four four-hour fittings before we were even close to going, 'OK, this is what we're going to do.'"

In real life, Debicki's look is quite different from Diana's, as seen in the photo on the right, taken during a red carpet outing in 2024. Not only is her hair color much lighter and icier than that of the late princess, but Debicki also has considerably longer hair, which was hidden by wigs during filming for "The Crown." This snapshot shows Debicki with a deep side part and loose curls that reach the top of her chest, along with a dark and dramatic smokey eye. Debicki doesn't always wear such dark eye makeup, but when she does, she can certainly rock it — just like Diana.

In order to properly portray Queen Elizabeth, Olivia Colman's styling was heavily dependent on wigs, since her real hair is much shorter than the late monarch's was. As depicted in the photo on the right, Colman has been rocking a chic pixie cut since 2018, which is quite the contrast from the Queen's trademark structured curls. While portraying the middle-aged version of Queen Elizabeth, Colman had a rotation of six different wigs that totally sold the look. "The first time I saw Olivia in her wig, it was magical," said co-star Helena Bonham Carter (via Netflix). "It was like, 'Oh my god. The Queen is in the room.'" 

Though Colman didn't have to undergo an intense makeup transformation for her role, considering that Queen Elizabeth's beauty routine was more relatable than you'd expect, there was one facial feature that was difficult to alter: her eyes. Unlike the monarch's unmistakably blue eye color, Colman's eyes are brown, and colored contact lenses weren't a feasible solution. According to Colman, she has particularly "strong eyelids" which made wearing contacts too painful. "It was basically like an exorcism," she told Vogue in 2019. Ben Caron, who directed some of the show's third season, said the contacts made it seem as if Colman was "acting behind a mask," according to The Guardian. "It was as if we had taken all of her acting ability and put it in a safe and locked it away." They also tried editing Colman's eyes in post-production — which didn't go well, either. "It didn't feel like her," Caron said. "CGI-ing her eyes seemed to diminish what she was doing." Colman instead powered through with her naturally brown eyes, which never took away from her stellar performance.

Out of all the striking transformations among the cast of "The Crown," Vanessa Kirby's metamorphosis into Princess Margaret has to be one of the most jaw-dropping. The English actor fully embodied young Margaret's free spirit during the show's first two seasons, though her portrayal wouldn't have been quite as convincing without a change in hair color. Kirby, a natural blond, required the perfect wig to capture Margaret's essence. As seen in the photograph on the left, Kirby's blond hair was swapped out for a brunette wig, often curled with rollers to achieve that classic, vintage look. In contrast to her on-screen look, Kirby is seen with her real hair in the picture on the right, taken at a 2025 screening of "Fantastic Four: First Steps," for which she embraced her character's icy blond locks.

Although Kirby was practically born to play the role of Princess Margaret, she did have some doubts when the show started filming, mostly due to her height. Kirby is estimated to be 5 feet, 7 inches tall, while the real Princess Margaret was much shorter, standing at 5 feet, 1 inch. "I felt too tall when I first started," Kirby told Harper's Bazaar in 2016. She recalled standing next to co-stars Claire Foy (Queen Elizabeth) and Victoria Hamilton (the Queen Mother) and thinking, "Oh my God, I'm like a head taller than them." Kirby said early on, she would try to remove her heels for certain scenes, before eventually learning to accept her physical differences from Princess Margaret. "You've got to surrender to the fact that you are you, playing [show creator] Peter [Morgan]'s version of her, and let it all go, basically."

The late Queen Elizabeth was known for staying consistent with the same hair and makeup look for decades, but the same cannot be said for the actor who played the monarch in the early seasons of "The Crown," Claire Foy. Throughout her acting career, Foy has tried on a multitude of different looks on screen, including the formal and elegant style she took on to portray young Queen Elizabeth — but Foy's chameleon-like tendency to change up her look isn't limited to her work on screen. The actor behind numerous film and TV characters has experimented with practically every hair color under the sun, ranging from the brunette shade of her natural color to hues of blond, jet-black, and even red. She also frequently mixes up her haircut, switching between shoulder-length locks and a super-short pixie cut, as seen in the photo on the right, taken in 2017.

But when Foy was in character for "The Crown", her styling only varied slightly throughout the roughly 20-year time period of Queen Elizabeth's life that the show's first two seasons covered. Although the late monarch's physical appearance didn't greatly evolve during much of her reign, the show's first makeup and hair designer, Ivana Primorac, was able to incorporate small touches into Foy's makeup to help give the illusion of time passing. "When [Queen Elizabeth] was younger, we made sure that the skin was very dewy and light," Primorac said of Foy's version of the monarch, as reported in a 2017 Variety interview. "As she got older, it got more powdery and more traditional."

You may not have even recognized Emma Corrin in "The Crown," as the actor nearly looked almost entirely different while portraying young Princess Diana. Corrin, who joined the cast for the series' fourth season, was able to successfully shapeshift into the spitting image of the late princess, thanks to the help of particularly precise styling. But underneath the perfectly-crafted wig replicating Diana's famous feathered bob, was Corrin's ever-evolving personal style. Just 23 years old when they landed the role, Corrin has since experienced a number of transformations with their hair, makeup, and fashion. They have tried out a number of fun and bold hairstyles, like the shaggy mullet seen in the photo above on the right, taken in 2025. Corrin has also been known to rock a bleach-blond pixie cut, dark brunette microbangs, and even a sharp buzzcut at one point.

But when it came to playing Princess Diana, Corrin's look had much less flexibility, as the show's costume designers were committed to making them look as much like Diana as possible in each and every scene. "I just loved going in and there'd be, like, a new incredible costume hanging in my trailer," Corrin told ET about her experience on set. "It was mad." With the privilege of portraying Diana during some of the most pivotal moments of her life, Corrin had some big shoes to fill, especially when filming the scenes of Diana's 1981 royal wedding to Prince Charles. With a custom-made replica of the iconic wedding dress, Corrin was able to fully step into Diana's world, especially once they put the dress on. "I walked out and everyone went completely silent," Corrin spilled to Vogue. "More than anything else I wear in the series, it's so ... It's her."