But she’s ready to reclaim it, and she does exactly that—boldly and beautifully—by Spencer‘s end. “Kristen played a woman who was in trouble, like we all go through,” Larraín tells Glamour. “She played a woman who needed to make a decision that was very hard, and we can all relate to that. I think many of us have or will eventually need to make some difficult decisions in our lives.”
Indeed, there is a universality to which Spencer depicts Princess Diana, arguably the most famous woman to draw a breath. The specifics of her story are almost ancillary to the film’s message. Spencer isn’t interested in regurgitating the biography of Diana; rather, it presents theories and questions about how she navigated a major crossroads in her life. In that respect, it’s a story everyone can find resonant.
“Diana was someone who affected millions of people, hundreds of millions of people around the world,” Larraín says. “I think we had the chance to do something that I think is quite interesting, just to inhabit her more internal perspective. I think we were able to enter her sort of imagination, her feelings, her emotions. That is our proposal: Diana was a pop icon, a fashion icon, and a mother, as well, and a very sort of normal, regular human in a very unusual context.”
Spencer particularly emphasizes that last part: Diana the human and Diana the mother. The film’s most joyous moments are when she’s with her boys, playing games in Sandringham Estate and staying up into the wee hours talking. The looseness and playfulness she exudes with her kids is a stark contrast to the stiff upper lip she employs in public, when photographers are snapping away. It’s a heartbreaking dichotomy—and as a viewer, you’ll find yourself hoping Diana unlocks a way to be her exuberant self all the time. To be a mom first and the Princess of Wales second.
Because Diana, at the end of the day, was a mother fighting for not just her life but her children’s as well. She was fighting for her family to be as normal and as healthy as possible. It’s what all parents want—but Princess Diana was never seen as a parent. She was seen as Princess Diana. Spencer changes that, humanizing her legacy in a way that’s both illuminating and necessary.
“The fact that her first priority is that she’s a mother and her first priority is the kids should come as no surprise,” Knight says. “Because, why wouldn’t they? She’s a mother. She’s a human being. The fact that that would ever even be questioned suggests how ‘other’ we think of [the royals and famous people]. We think how different they must be. They’re not. This is human instinct. This is what human beings do.”
Spencer is now in theaters.
Christopher Rosa is the entertainment editor at Glamour. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.
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