That's exactly how I felt. So getting to suddenly know this young [princess] Margaret, who had this extraordinary life - it was sad and tragic and difficult and sort of astonishing and getting to know her young self was amazing because it completely defied all my expectations.

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

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."

Some of the biographies [of princess Margaret] were really sensationalist, News of the World sorts, but they were great because they also gave first and secondhand accounts of her at home. The butlers come forward and give little moments, some of which you discard and some which ring somehow true and you use.

That's exactly how I felt. So getting to suddenly know this young [princess] Margaret, who had this extraordinary life - it was sad and tragic and difficult and sort of astonishing and getting to know her young self was amazing because it completely defied all my expectations.

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

I watched tons of archive footage of princess Margaret and listened to the music she loved; that was really immersive and brilliant.