You don't have to be a royalist to be in the Royal Family. Or, at least, Josh O'Connor doesn't. During Esquire Townhouse @ Your House with Breitling – our digital weekend festival of interviews, conversations and performances – The Crown star admitted that he's a card-carrying republican. By which we mean the abolishment of the monarchy republicanism, not the Donald Trump 'you get a gun! You get a gun! You get a gun!' kind.
During a conversation with Jonathan Anderson, founder of the eponymous JW brand and creative director at Loewe, O'Connor admitted that, actually, he doesn't even want a monarchy. "I don't really follow [them]. I really avoided the person Prince Charles," the 30-year-old said in the talk, which was moderated by art historian and writer Ferren Gipson. "So firstly I didn't know a lot about him... I'm an all-out republican, so that's not really changed."
That distance, however, has allowed the God's Own Country star to exercise some autonomy, and interpret Prince Charles in his own way, with the actor admitting he's not going for the Dead Ringers approach. "I'd be rubbish at trying to do an impression or a version of Charles where everyone goes 'that's exactly him'. I always reference a great film that Todd Haynes made about Bob Dylan called I Am Not There, and everyone remembers Cate Blanchett because she played the most recognisable version of Dylan. There's eight actors playing eight aspect of Dylan's personality, and that is so much more interesting to me than seeing a version of Dylan which is literally the only version of Dylan that we see through the eyes of the press and the media."
Bob Dylan and Prince Charles: more in common than you'd think.
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