The role that “set a foundation” for Vanessa Kirby’s career: “She’s angry inside”
Vanessa Kirby has risen very quickly to the top of the list of Hollywood’s most exciting actors, as she has proven herself to be capable of both prestige plays and mass entertainment, but she got her big break on television.
Although she has earned herself an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Actress’ with her heartbreaking portrayal of a grieving mother in the drama Pieces of a Woman, she also landed the role of Sue Storm in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and is set to be a major part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the years to come.
Kirby’s first big break was in The Crown, the six-season Netflix drama series that tackled the entire history of the British Royal Family over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, which begins shortly after the end of World War II, where King George VI, played by Jared Harris, is congratulating Prime Minister Winston Churchill, portrayed by John Lithgow, on his successful re-election. It is soon after the King succumbs to his illness that forces his daughter, played by Claire Foy, to take the throne at a young age and become Queen Elizabeth.
Although Foy’s performance was widely praised, Kirby had a breakout on the show with her performance as Princess Margaret. Being the ‘second sister’ in line to the throne is a challenge, and Margaret often clashes with Elizabeth as a result of their very different social lives. Margaret is a great host and a very vivacious person, but Elizabeth worries that her private activities could attract the attention of the press, which has complicated nearly every ordeal in the Royal Family’s history.
Kirby revealed that learning about the woman she was portraying proved to be an instructive process, saying, “I never realised how empowering it was to play someone on screen that the men are seen in relation to. Peter Townsend is the fiancé, Tony Armstrong-Jones is the boyfriend of Margaret, as opposed to the other way round.”
Her success on The Crown quickly led her to getting more roles, as she was soon cast in Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, where she got to show her merits as an action star, but she found that Margaret was a part that was difficult to shake.
“Margaret has set a foundation for me,” Kirby said, “I feel such a responsibility to find those roles and also to make them. I want to see a messy, real, weird, brilliant, idiosyncratic woman. Something internal hasn’t been resolved. She’s angry inside.”
Margaret’s fury comes to the forefront in the second season, where she gets into a serious feud with her sister about who she is allowed to marry, making for a brilliant season of television because it sympathises with both characters, even if Margaret is the one who has to suffer the heartbreak.
The structure of The Crown resulted in the cast being cycled out every two seasons in order to move forward in the timeline. Margaret was portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter in the third and fourth seasons, and by Lesley Manville in the fifth and sixth, and while they were both praised for their work, Kirby’s performance was what set the standard for the role, remembered the most fondly.
