When Meg Bellamy learned that she had been cast as Kate Middleton, the world’s most famous princess, on The Crown, the Brit couldn’t have been in a less glamorous setting.
She was dressed as a giant red brick at Legoland Windsor, where she worked as a mascot—and had to peel off the costume and head to the delivery parking lot just to take the call.
Bellamy, who grew up 20 miles from the real Middleton, had spent months auditioning for the coveted role. After a self-tape, there had been callbacks; in one, she filmed a scene helping a college-age Prince William navigate the laundromat. The British actor, whose only previous credit is a short film, had even done a read-through with the show’s sprawling cast and slate of directors before being cast.
“I was so attached to the role and the anticipation was real,” says Bellamy. “So when I finally got the call, it was a big relief.” Not that she could tell her co-workers. She had to pile back into the red Lego uniform and deal with customer complaints before turning in her notice—only telling her boss that she had scored “a big part.”
Having retired her mascot uniform, Bellamy began preparing to play the real-life princess by diving into a research packet compiled by Netflix. The actors Ed McVey and Luther Ford, who play The Crown’s Prince William and Harry in the show’s final episodes, were drowning in video footage of the real-life royals they’d play, since both men had been documented since birth. But with Middleton, who only became a public figure in the early aughts when she began Dating Prince William, there was much less archival material available.
Courtesy of Netflix.