Josh O’Connor’s Emmy win was a perfect way to say goodbye to Charles

As shocking as Emma Corrin’s loss to Olivia Coleman was (as much as Coleman’s indelible portrait of the middle aged queen was, it was Corrin’s haunting presence as a young Diana that set the season ablaze on The Crown ),  Josh O’Connor’s sensitive, multifaceted take on a tortured Charles earned him the Best Actor in a Drama prize Emmy night. It was a fitting end to a two-year portrayal that earned our sympathy in his first season as an underappreciated son only to have it stolen by the dynamic star power of Corrin’s fascinating Diana in the fourth season.

"“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,” O’Connor said in a Vanity Fair interview after the Emmy’s telecast. “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.”"

The Southampton native and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School trained actor was the only Crown star on hand in LA, while the rest of the crew and cast tuned in (and partied) from London. All the wins were bittersweet as the audience has just said goodbye to this stellar cast and season 5 is already underway with their successors Imelda Staunton (Elizabeth), Jonathan Pryce (Philip), Dominic West (Charles), and Elizabeth Debicki (Diana) taking over.

"“The journey Charles has through [Seasons] 3 and 4 was the most exciting bit for me,” O’Connor said in the interview. “To take a character from being, in my eyes, entirely sympathetic. A young boy who’s seemingly unappreciated by his mother and father is trying really hard to fill these incredibly difficult and huge boots. To go to someone who’s in this total rut of a marriage. A deeply unhappy family. It was the experience of a lifetime.”"

O’Connor’s next project, a period piece, Mothering Sunday, will reunite him with his Crown co-star Olivia Coleman, if just for one scene in the film.

“It was quite fun, and kind of surreal,” he said, about the experience of acting alongside Coleman again.

The Emmy-winning actor is eager to get back to playing royals that go back a little further in history, courtesy of William Shakespeare. His marvelous turn as Romeo in PBS’ “Great Performances” series aired earlier this year, without an audience due to COVID (do yourself a favor and check it out).

“It was magic,” Josh O’Connor said about the event, in which he featured opposite Jessie Buckley as Juliet. “When I first moved to London, age 21, straight from drama school, I would just hang around the National Theatre. Not doing anything, just taking it in. It’s like a place of worship for us. And so the feeling of going into the National Theatre that’s usually so alive and full of people enjoying and sharing culture and art, and to find it empty, was really haunting and sad. For us to come in and breathe life into it again was one of the highlights of my career.”

You can read the full interview here. We’re still sad about The Crown‘s Emma Corrin losing out on Lead Actress, but couldn’t be happier for Josh O’Connor. We can’t wait to see what he conquers next.