Who’s your favorite Princess Margaret on ‘The Crown’: Vanessa Kirby, Helena Bonham Carter or Lesley Manville? [POLL]
Throughout her life, Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom naturally paled in stature to her older sister, who was crowned Queen Elizabeth II at age 25. On Netflix’s “The Crown,” Margaret exists as a supporting character in the queen’s life story but, as she did in real life, regularly attracts plenty of attention. With one season left in its six-season run, the drama series has covered nearly all of the younger princess’ 71 years of life. The three actresses who’ve shared the role – Vanessa Kirby, Helena Bonham Carter and Lesley Manville – have all been heavily praised for their distinct portrayals, but which one has truly done the best job? Vote for your favorite Princess Margaret in our poll below and then defend your choice in the comments section.
Kirby’s version of Margaret spends much of the first two seasons of “The Crown” navigating her rocky love life, which involves her forgoing true happiness with equerry Peter Townsend and settling for a supposedly more suitable marriage to photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones. Kirby (who briefly reprised her role in some fifth-season flashbacks) was honored with the 2018 BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress and received an Emmy nomination later that year.
Nearly a decade after earning an Oscar notice for playing Margaret’s mother, Queen Elizabeth, in “The King’s Speech,” Bonham Carter embodied the middle-aged princess during the third and fourth seasons of “The Crown.” At this point, she and Elizabeth II portrayers Claire Foy and Olivia Colman are the only actors who have each picked up multiple Emmy nominations for the series. Although she did not win the TV academy’s favor in 2020 or 2021, she was chosen as the recipient of the 2020 Gold Derby TV Award for Best Drama Supporting Actress.
With the “Crown” timeline now having reached mid-1997, there are less than five years of Margaret’s life left to cover. Manville, who will see the role through until the end, is an Oscar and five-time BAFTA Award nominee whose career spans nearly 50 years. Included on her extensive resume is a one-episode appearance as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the 2009 Channel 4 series “The Queen.”
Seasons 1-5 of “The Crown” are streaming now on Netflix, with the sixth and final season likely to debut in Fall 2023.
PREDICT the 2023 Golden Globe winners
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?
SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions