I really enjoyed stepping into that side of [princess Margaret] and being silly and naughty and fun.

I did a lot before [being cast] because I knew how important it would be for playing somebody real, or attempting to - to show the team [the role] was something I would be fascinated to do. I read a couple of biographies and I watched everything I could find [about princess Margaret].

I remember somebody saying something to me about Frost/Nixon, when Anthony Hopkins does his famous speech, and the difference in the way Anthony did it was to dramatize, essentially, what was a documentary-style version of that speech. I remember someone saying to me, "There is artistic liberty."

Marking the differences between them was really important. It just became second nature. When we were choosing pajamas or something, instantly you'd be able to spot: those are [princess] Margaret, those are [princess] Elizabeth. It became this sort of language, really, of the two sisters.

[Queen Elizabeth] is just the granny queen! She's our granny queen who shakes people's hands!

That external struggle mirrors the struggle of this life force of energy that [princess Margaret] was.

I would argue [princess] Margaret is the tragic figure of the century.