A casting call has gone out across Britain to find “an exceptional young actor” to play Prince Harry in the next series of The Crown.
Casting director Robert Sterne has taken to social media in an apparent last-minute search on behalf of Netflix for someone who looks like the Duke of Sussex and who can play the real prince in his teenage years from 16 to 20.
Wannabe Harrys who think they’re a shoe-in must submit a 30-second close-up video (shot on a mobile phone is acceptable) “on head and shoulders in good natural lighting” by October 14.
“It is a significant role … and we are looking for a strong physical resemblance,” Mr Sterne wrote, clearly seeking applicants with red hair, blushing cheeks and a cheeky smile.
“No previous professional acting experience required. We are very experienced in providing a great deal of support for the young actors and their families through what they find is a uniquely rewarding creative process.”
Filming on the sixth and final series of the hugely popular The Crown – the streaming giant’s most watched show after the Queen’s death last month – starts in November, so the clock is ticking.
The urgent casting call as fresh photos of Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle emerged on Tuesday. They were taken by British-Nigerian photographer Misan Harriman, a friend of the couple who also snapped the Duchess of Sussex while pregnant with daughter Lilibet.
The photos, released on Harriman’s social media, show the duke and duchess hand in hand ahead of the One Young World Summit in Manchester a month ago. Meghan gave a speech at the event, just days before the death of Harry’s grandmother, the Queen.
So what was Prince Harry up to in those teen years?
A lot.
Based on the advertised age range, The Crown‘s storylines could start anywhere from 1998, the year after Harry’s mother Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car accident in Paris through to 2005.
Early in the period, the cheeky, sometimes unruly Harry was enrolled at the prestigious Eton College. He played in polo tournaments, went skiing with his brother William and father, then Prince Charles, in Switzerland, played rugby and joined Britain’s Combined Cadet Force.
According to a 2002 report in The Guardian, there were also some serious issues. A teenage Harry was taken to a drug rehabilitation clinic for a “short, sharp shock” after he was reportedly caught smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol.
When Harry was home from school and his father was in London, he “was encouraged to have friends round to keep him company”.
“During a period covering June and July 2001, Prince Harry fell in with a bad lot at the Rattlebone Inn … earlier last year Prince Harry was involved in an incident after a fight broke out over out-of-hours drinking and was barred from the inn for a while,” it wrote.
A gap year … and some parties
After graduating high school in 2003, Harry made a gap year trip to Australia to work as a jackaroo on a Queensland cattle station.
He also travelled to Lesotho, where he worked with orphaned children and produced the documentary film The Forgotten Kingdom.
He was back in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons in 2005 when he wore a Nazi uniform with a swastika armband to a friend’s fancy dress party. The London tabloids went ballistic with headlines like this from the Sun: “Harry the Nazi”.
Harry in Tooloombilla, Queensland, during his gap year in 2003. Photo: Getty
In 2003, the Queen presented Prince Harry with a gift after a polo match. Photo: Getty
Visiting charities in 2002 included a visit to West Ham United’s Upton Park football ground. Photo: Getty
A young Prince Harry was pictured wearing a Nazi soldier’s uniform, just a fortnight before the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Photo: Getty
In 2005, Harry joined the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he completed two years of training and was promoted to lieutenant.
He was secretly deployed to Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, where he spent 10 weeks before being pulled out after media coverage exposed his location.
It was later reported that Harry helped Gurkha troops repel an attack from Taliban insurgents in 2008.
In 2012, when he was 28, the prince was captured playing strip billiards in a Las Vegas hotel suite. He later admitted to Man of the World magazine that the lapse in judgment “was probably a classic case of me being too much army and not enough prince”.
Elsewhere, the actors who will play the young Prince William and Kate Middleton for in The Crown‘s season six were announced last month following a similar casting call.
Agents found Meg Bellamy for the role of the future Princess of Wales, and Rufus Kampa for the 16-year-old William.
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