Princess Margaret Greenlit Casting Helena Bonham Carter in The Crown From Beyond the Grave

When Helena Bonham Carter was cast as Princess Margaret in seasons three and four of The Crown, she did all the completely normal things an actor does to research a biographical role: read biographies, interviewed friends, and hired an astrologer, a graphologist, and a psychic medium in order to beg the deceased royal’s blessing of her performance.

At the recent Cheltenham Literature Festival (which sounds like an event where Agatha Raisin might solve a murder), Bonham Carter spoke about her chat with Princess Maragaret via spiritualist where the channeled psyche of a dead royal used her few minutes of earthly conversation to both give her blessing and talk some shit:

“‘She said, apparently, she was glad it was me. My main thing when you play someone who is real, you kind of want their blessing because you have a responsibility. So I asked her: ‘Are you OK with me playing you?’ and she said: ‘You’re better than the other actress’ … that they were thinking of. They will not admit who it was. It was me and somebody else.”

Then the spectre gave Bonham Carter some acting tips along with a few general opinions on her overall appearance:

“That made me think maybe she is here, because that is a classic Margaret thing to say. She was really good at complimenting you and putting you down at the same time. Then she said: ‘But you’re going to have to brush up and be more groomed and neater.’ Then she said: ‘Get the smoking right. I smoked in a very particular way. Remember that – this is a big note – the cigarette holder was as much a weapon for expression as it was for smoking.’”

That’s all very well, but now I need to know what Margaret Thatcher has told Gillian Anderson via Ouiji board.