Luther Ford, The Crowns Prince Harry, listened to Spare a lot during filming

I love British names – I hear the name “Luther Ford” and, here in America, that would be the name of a handsome and large Black man. But in the UK, Luther Ford is a pale ginger actor and film student. Luther Ford was cast as a teenage/early 20s Prince Harry in the final season of The Crown. While Meg Bellamy and Ed McVey are stuck talking about William & Kate’s college love story, Luther spoke to the NY Times about how he got into character and whether he actually gives a sh-t about the Windsors.

How he felt when he was first cast as Harry: “At first I was like, “This is amazing — brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I’m going to tell everyone.” But the first rehearsal was when I realized, “Oh, this is actually serious, and this is not going to be something I’m just going to walk through.” I was so naïve, and then when I actually got there, I was looking at the script like, “God, I don’t know how to act. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Whether he was interested in the Windsors before he was cast: “Not particularly. They are embedded in British culture whether you like it or not. I didn’t love them or hate them, I was semi-impartial. The fact that I didn’t know a huge amount about the royal family and the fact that I had been cast, that kind of made me feel like, OK, well, there must be something I’m doing that just works for the character.

Whether he consumed the Sussexes’ docuseries or Harry’s memoir: “I listened to the audiobook of “Spare” all the time while filming because he’s reading it. It was good for the voice. But I would only use it in the sense of what Peter’s scripts were exploring, because otherwise, there was too much to worry about. It’s not about doing an impression, but capturing a kind of essence or a flavor. So we were encouraged to focus on the timeline of the show because the rest is somewhat irrelevant.

The Black Sheep: “One of the things Peter was interested in exploring in terms of brotherhood, and the institution was the idea of Harry being the black sheep of the family. In a funny way, I related to that because, as a non-actor who was new to that world, going onto “The Crown” set, it didn’t take a huge stretch of imagination to feel like an outsider. When you’re surrounded by some of the best British actors I didn’t immediately feel like I fit in with them. I leaned into the fact that it was uncomfortable for the role. It was useful to feel out of place.

How he feels about Harry now: “Yeah, I’ve thought about him every day. By thinking about someone and researching a lot about them, you build up a lot of empathy for them. It’s your job to like them in some way.”

Whether he wants to know what Harry thought of his performance: “It would be a lie to say no — but I’m definitely not holding my breath for a statement.”

[From The NY Times]

Yeah, my guess is that Harry would never make a public statement about watching the last season of The Crown, but he might privately send Luther a note or something. Luther seems like a nice guy, honestly – what’s surprises me the most about so many of the younger actors who have been cast in The Crown is how many of them are completely ambivalent towards the royals. They view them as characters to unlock as actors, but the actors generally don’t care one way or the other about “the royal family.” Josh O’Connor was republican-adjacent, Emma Corrin basically only liked Diana, and Luther sounds like he only really gives a sh-t about Harry.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Netflix/The Crown.

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