Ella Bright Reveals What She Didn't Have to Do to Play Young Kate Middleton — And She's Relieved
While 'The Crown' star had to undergo extensive preparation for Kate Middleton's role, there was one thing she thankfully didn't have to learn.
While Ella Bright might have been pushed to global fame for her role in record-breaking series, Off Campus, she is still remembered for her stint as a young Kate Middleton in the sixth season of The Crown. To prepare for the massive undertaking, Bright had to undergo extensive preparation. However, she recently revealed the one thing she was “grateful” she didn’t have to do to play the younger version of the Princess of Wales. And it’s not what anyone would have expected.
Middleton has always been sporty and, as a royal, has tried her hand at multiple sports through the years. When she was in prep school, she made a high jump record that still stands at the institution today. During a quiz with Tatler, Bright was asked to guess what the height of the royal’s jump was, and was given three options - 0.7m, 1.5m, and 2.6m.
Even before attempting to answer the question, the British-American star made it clear she was glad she didn’t have to do the high jump for her role in The Crown. “Very grateful that me playing young Kate Middleton did not require me to jump the high jump. I can't do sports!” she chuckled. Bright then started weighing the three options given to her, “2.6 is quite high. 0.7 I feel like could be surpassed.” Eventually, she correctly guessed option “B,” which was 1.5m, and celebrated with an “yay!” Watch the video here!
Although Bright didn’t have to practice her high-jumping skills to play the Princess of Wales, she did need to work on her accent, despite already having a strong British dialect. During an interview with Island Magazine, she revealed it was one of the “daunting” but “fun” aspects of taking on the role. “It was a bit of a daunting task! Searching up interviews, trying to figure out how the accent works - there was a dialect coach on set, which was cool as I hadn’t experienced that before. Getting to perfect my posh British accent was very fun!” she said. Her diligent homework and the dialect coach’s help, coupled with her brilliant acting chops, certainly made her appearance as the young Middleton memorable.
Interestingly, the high jump is reportedly one of the princess’s “favorite” track and field events. She revealed her love for the discipline during a special episode of her brother-in-law Mike Tindall’s podcast The Good, The Bad, and The Rugby, when the former rugby player shared that he used to high jump. Apart from the field event, Middleton loves tennis, paddle, and cold swimming.
After Bright, English actress Meg Bellamy took forward the Princess of Wales’ role in the popular Netflix series. Bellamy played the princess during her college years at St. Andrews, where she met William. Although The Crown is arguably the most famous portrayal of the beloved royals, there have been several screen adaptations of their love story.
