The Crown has taken the television binging public by storm. In its third season, even a casting change to all its major characters (to age them up as time progresses) did not deter audiences from tuning in.
In fact, this new cast of the royal family, recently won the Screen Actors Guild Award for best ensemble in a television series. That’s impressive all by itself. But The Crown is certainly not the first time a historical monarch has been portrayed on screen, nor is it even the first time for Elizabeth II herself. Like any screen genre, there have been successful interpretations and embarrassing ones.
Best: Queen Elizabeth II - The Crown
The Crown has, thus far, cast two prominent actresses as Elizabeth II, and both have pulled off perhaps the best interpretation of the monarch. Claire Foy was incredible as the newly crowned Elizabeth, balancing a new husband, new children, and a new position in the show’s first two seasons.
Colman came on this season as a more hardened and experienced monarch and made the part all her own while still channeling the stoic style Foy created with her performance. The fact that both actresses are successful on their own while not being offputting for viewers who have followed the royal family’s journey all along is its own on-screen magic.
Worst: Mary Queen of Scots/Elizabeth I - Mary Queen of Scots
Since we have listed two not quite queens on our “worst” list, here we will offer two. While Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan give decent performances in terms of acting, the story of the film makes their portrayals of real-life monarchs very problematic.
While the movie has the two monarchs meeting, face to face, though they never did. That single fiction might have been forgiven if both queens had not been reduced to squabbling over what was actually a very complicated diplomatic struggle in the day.
Best: Queen Victoria - Victoria
Television seems to have done a better job of fleshing out real-life royalty than any film has done of late. Jenna Coleman has done an impeccable job of portraying another Queen come to rule at a very young age for three seasons on PBS. A bit more of a soap opera than The Crown, Victoria portrays not only a real-life monarch but a real woman, pulled in many different directions not only by her position, but by her heart. Aided and sometimes overlooked by the men around her, Coleman does a fantastic job showing viewers a Queen who comes into her own as a ruler and a woman.
Worst: The Other Boleyn Girl - Anne Boleyn
The movie, The Other Boleyn Girl, had quite the cast, including Eric Bana as Henry VIII and Natalie Portman as one of his six wives, Anne Boleyn. Unlike Victoria, some of the over-the-top soap opera elements did not come off well on the big screen. Anne comes off as just as much a villain as Henry in the film, self-centered and power-crazed. In the film she’s also portrayed as the older sister to Mary where in reality she was the younger sibling. Not exactly a necessary change to make the movie any more of a winning depiction.
Best: Elizabeth - Elizabeth I
Despite The Crown and Victoria, there have still been amazing performances on the big screen as well as the small. Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I in the 1998 movie, Elizabeth, is certainly one of the best performances of a monarch captured on screen.
The role put Cate Blanchett on the map as an actress and was well received, leading to a sequel film almost ten years later. Her performance earned her a Golden Globe as well as an Academy Award nomination. Watching young rulers manage their early years on the throne seems to be a winning combination for audiences.
Worst: Anne Boleyn - Henry VIII
The 2003 television miniseries was relatively well-received, Helena Bonham Carter was surprisingly miscast as Anne Boleyn. While Anne was hardly the devil she is often portrayed as on-screen, she was certainly not a meek and scared young woman as she comes off in the first few episodes of the program. Not a great look for a queen who was often seen as brave and independent.
Best: Elizabeth II - The Queen
Apparently, it can make a difference when the monarch one is portraying is still alive, as Queen Elizabeth II has had quite a few impressive portrayals in the last few decades. While Foy and Colman do her justice as her younger self on Netflix, Helen Mirren made quite the impression as the seasoned Queen dealing with the fallout of the death of her ex-daughter in law in 2006’s The Queen. Mirren’s performance not only won the actress an Academy Award, but she won praise from the real-life Queen Elizabeth II, as well. You can’t get a better review than that.
Worst: Diana - Diana (The Movie)
She never became Queen, but to ignore the depiction of “The People’s Princess,” especially as she prepares to appear on The Crown, would be foolish. Were you aware there was a biopic made about the late Princess of Wales in 2013? It starred Naomi Watts as Diana herself and currently holds an approval rating of 8% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film follows the ill-fated royal’s last two years of life, but shed little new light on her life overall. The movie is all surface and no substance, which is an unfortunate portrayal of such an alluring real-life figure.
Best: Queen Victoria - Victoria and Abdul
Judi Dench could portray any monarch and pull it off. However, her portrayal of Queen Victoria in the 2017 film Victoria and Abdul is of particular note. Like Helen Mirren before her, she takes on a monarch at the end of her career rather than at her beginning and runs away with the performance.
Playing a widowed queen who has finally come to a point where she can make demands (like requesting to try a mango) without feeling ashamed or worrying about losing her reputation. Dench is both powerful and funny, a winning combination.
Worst: Wallis Simpson - W.E.
Like Diana, Princess of Wales, Wallis Simpson never became a queen (nor did she become a princess). Her marriage to King Edward VIII actually led to the monarch’s abdication from the British throne. Still, she deserves a place on our list because W.E., a 2011 Historical Drama was anything but historical.
It posits the idea that Wallis and Edward were nothing but spurned lovers, wronged by the whole of the United Kingdom, when, in fact, they were a bit selfish and, also, sympathized with Nazis. It has a 12% on Rotten Tomatoes. Andrea Riseborough starred as the star crossed Simpson in a film that was called both “simpering” and “false.”
