Here is a NEW Interview with Tobias Menzies from Entertainment Weekly
From EW:
The Crown’s new star Olivia Colman may be ruling the latest cover of Entertainment Weekly as Queen Elizabeth II, but when season 3 of the show launches Nov. 17 on Netflix, she’ll be joined by an extraordinarily talented and acclaimed array of actors. They include Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret; Ben Daniels, who has been cast as Margaret’s louche husband, Lord “Tony” Snowden; and Outlander actor Tobias Menzies, who portrays Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip, the role taken by Matt Smith in the first two seasons of the show.
More after the jump!
So, what’s it like working so closely with Colman?
“Really terrible,” Menzies tells EW, chuckling. The actor, whose many other credits include Rome, The Terror, and Game of Thrones, adds, “No, she’s one of the nicest people you could meet and work with. She’s a real delight. Incredibly generous, hard-working, humble. Yeah, she’s thoroughly sickening.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What can you tell us about Philip’s notable highs and lows in season 3?
TOBIAS MENZES: I guess, broadly speaking, there’s less of the kind of on/off-ness of the relationship [between Philip and Elizabeth]. The marriage is in a more settled place. Their challenges come from outside for both of them. Philip’s mother comes into this season, [played by] a great actress called Jane Lapotaire. She comes and lives with the family, and that raises various complications for him. Sort of buried emotions, I think.
[In] his teenage years, his mother went through various mental health issues, and religious delusions, and quite a lot of stuff went on, and essentially he was just farmed around to extended family members. So all that stuff comes back to roost, and that’s folded into the start of the decline of his relationship with the press, which obviously has been like a consistent drumbeat since I’ve been around. He makes a misstep and tries to positively reframe the family, make it more outward-facing, more press-savvy, and gets pretty burned
And then later on in the show, we see an episode where he hits various midlife crisis questions, and Peter [Morgan, writer and showrunner] framed it around the moon landing, which Philip becomes very obsessed with. It raises thoughts in him of “What have I done with my life?” when he sees this sort of apogee of heroism in these men. Part of him kind of goes, “That’s what I could have been, if I hadn’t chosen this path, if I hadn’t married this person, if I hadn’t become who I’ve become,” which was never his intention, to be this kind of functionary. So the questions and the challenges for both of them are coming from outside, a bit more existential, really, rather than marital.
Fascinating interview. I didn’t know the life of an actor could be so complicated and complex. There is so much they have to know and have to do to be totally immersed into their roles. Thank you for sharing this interview with us.