Erin Doherty will star in a new six-part psychological thriller called Chloe this week on BBC One. Described as a “mystery about obsession, deceit, identity and grief,” it is being overseen by creator and writer Alice Seabright, who was the director of Netflix hit series Sex Education. Erin plays Becky in the series. Still living with her mum and working as a temp, Becky compares herself to the picture-perfect lives on Instagram, compulsively returning to one account: Chloe’s. When something happens to Chloe, Becky assumes a new identity to investigate, and infiltrates her group of friends.
Erin is perhaps best known for her role in The Crown, where she played one of the most formidable royals – Princess Anne.
Speaking to Town and Country magazine in 2019, Erin admitted she was “scared to death” about how Anne may react to her portrayal.
She said: “Honestly, thinking about it scares me to death. I don’t expect that she watches it. I don’t actually think I can properly imagine what she’d say watching it.
“What I love about her is that she is so brutally honest with her feelings. I think I’d take it to heart no matter what she said. Even if she liked most of it and then she had one bad comment.
“She just doesn’t hold back. Thinking about that terrifies me.
“But I genuinely like to think that we’ve done her justice. I feel like a lot of people, like me, will learn so much about her, and fall in love with her as much as I have.
“I think she’s this incredibly strong, powerful, determined woman, and I really do believe that people are going to be like, ‘Oh my God, I never knew this about her.'”
Erin also explained the arduous process of preparing for the role.
She had to watch numerous videos and mimic her voice as much as possible to perfect the role.
Erin added: “Honestly, when I got the call about going up for it, I didn’t really know anything about her. I don’t think many people of my generation particularly do.
“I learned everything in prep for my meeting. I just went all in. Before the meeting I prepped as if I was going to do it, just to make sure I went in there as well prepared as I could.
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“I watched so many videos of her on YouTube. I think me and Josh, who plays Charles, really lucked out in the sense that there’s a lot more footage of them at that young age then there was of Elizabeth and Phillip.
“So we literally got to watch them and then take what we wanted from that and then make whatever version of them we wanted to.
For me, ultimately, it was about the voice because it is so different from mine. I had to make sure that was on point.
“So I walked around speaking as her, trying not to look too crazy. And honestly, the more I did it, naturally it became a subconscious thing.”
Speaking to The Guardian last month, Erin was full of praise for the Princess Royal.
She said Anne is a “rock star” because she “is devoted to telling the truth at all times, regardless of how someone may respond.”
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Erin added: “For me, a rock star is someone who just feels what they feel, and they say it in the moment and the other person just has to deal with that.”
Last week, the actress spoke to the Sunday Times about her future projects, and explained why she wants to avoid “upper-class” roles like Anne in the future.
She said: “A lot of upper-class characters came my way after playing Anne, and I said no because I didn’t want to be stuck doing that.”
Erin also said that playing Anne made her more confident and less concerned with what others think.
She continued: “Anne taught me you have to care less about people’s opinions.”
