‘The Crown’ Star Josh O’Connor Struggled With Fame: ‘It Was A F*cked Up Time’

The Crown star Josh O’Connor, who portrayed a young Prince Charles on Seasons 3 & 4 of the hit Netflix series, says the fame that came from being on the show was a burden to him.

“It was a fucked-up time,” O’Connor said in a recent interview with GQ. “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 appeared as Prince Charles in the third season of The Crown, and later worked alongside Emma Corrin’s Princess Diana in Season 4.

The actor, who is also starring in the forthcoming tennis dramedy Challengers, received an Emmy and Golden Globe for his performance in Season 4 of The Crown, as well as two BAFTA nominations for both seasons.

O’Connor spoke with Variety in 2021 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.”

O’Connor stars alongside Zendaya and Mike Faist in Luca Guadagnino‘s Challengers, which is set to premiere on April 26, 2024.