The Crown 's Dominic West reveals that he rented a cottage from Prince Charles before playing him

By the time Dominic West signed on to star as Prince Charles on season 5 of The Crown, he had met the now-King on several occasions for a couple of reasons. First, he is an ambassador for The Prince's Trust, a charity established by King Charles III in 1976. Second, The Wire and The Affair actor encountered the monarch via his wife Catherine Fitzgerald, a landscape gardener who has collaborated with the King on a couple of projects.

"My wife was involved in the garden at Hillsborough Castle in Belfast and the garden at Dumfries House in Scotland," West says. "He always looked slightly disappointed when I wasn't there with my wife. So mainly we talk about her. And plants."

West also reveals that Charles is a fan of the actor's performance in Les Misérables, a 2018 TV adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel that coincidentally co-starred Josh O'Connor, who previously portrayed the Prince on The Crown.

"He was very complimentary. He said he really enjoyed it," West recalls. So he's not a fan of The Wire? "Not as far as I know, no," he says with a laugh.

Netflix; Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images Dominic West in 'The Crown'; King Charles III

After agreeing to play Charles on The Crown, West felt obliged to dig deeper into the history of the man he was channeling.

"Well, I read most of the books about him, and my God, there's a lot of biographers as we saw [in the coverage of] the Queen's funeral. There seemed to be a new one every 10 minutes," he says. "I took advantage of the huge research department of The Crown. They sent me lots of videos, lots of interviews. I mean, it's the thing about him: There's so much on him, and every single moment of his life has been scrutinized and recorded, so there's a lot to go on."

In addition, West took it upon himself to conduct some hands-on research.

"He has a farm estate that he rescued in Cornwall and that the Duchy of Cornwall [which operates land holdings on behalf of the British monarch's eldest son] now runs, and you can rent cottages there," says West. "I went there for week, just to sort of carry on my reading and research and walk around and think about him and be in a place [imbued] by his personality. I went to Highgrove [Charles' private residence] as well and joined a garden tour there. So I really enjoyed the travel aspects and going to the places where he's had an effect."

Keith Bernstein/Netflix Dominic West in 'The Crown' season 5

West made it his business to speak about Charles with anyone he came across who might have met him.

"What I discovered was, there's a huge number of places where he has had an effect," he says. "I bought a dog around that time from a farm near me in Bath and turned up at the farm and realized it had the Duchy sign on it, and it was a Duchy of Cornwall farm. I was asking the owner and she said, 'Oh, yeah, he comes here quite often.' She had pictures of him walking down the farm."

West continues, "I mean, his reach is astonishing, and that was revelatory, really. So the other aspect of the research is asking absolutely everyone who might have met him if they have, and absolutely everyone has. Whether they're a farmer or an actor. I met a girl who was restoring buildings in Beijing, another one who was restoring houses in Transylvania. They'd all met him!"

Season 5 of The Crown is streaming now on Netflix.

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