“The Crown” felt like a burden to Josh O’Connor after starring in the third and fourth season of Netflix’s historical drama series.
In a recent interview with GQ, the actor described the recognition he received following his two-season stint as a young Prince Charles.
“It was a fucked-up time,” O’Connor said. “I found it so impactful, people stopping me. You want to be in stuff that’s successful and seen, but I think sometimes we underestimate how powerful even a slight loss of anonymity can be.”
He added, “What I was doing in my career before ‘The Crown’ — I just wanted to carry on doing that.”
O’Connor first played Prince Charles in the third season of “The Crown,” and later worked alongside Emma Corrin’s Princess Diana in Season 4. The “Challengers” star scored an Emmy and Golden Globe for his performance in the fourth season, as well as two BAFTA nominations for both seasons.
In 2021, O’Connor spoke with Variety following his Emmy win for outstanding lead actor in a drama series.
“It’s been two years of my life, cumulatively, making the show. And then the rest of my life has just been talking about it,” he said. “It’s a strange dynamic; you spend more time talking about your work than you do making it sometimes. And that just shows the success of [‘The Crown’] — that people want to hear about it and want to understand the process and the stories. I’ve had the best two years ever. But it’s also exciting, the idea that I can go off and talk about other stuff.”
On the horizon, O’Connor stars alongside Zendaya and Mike Faist in Luca Guadagnino’s sports dramedy “Challengers,” which is set to be released on April 26, 2024.