Dominic West has revealed that he offered to quit as ambassador of The Prince’s Trust over his role playing King Charles III in Netflix’s The Crown.
The actor claimed he offered to resign in case his new acting gig was a conflict of interest with the charity, which has the King as its president.
However, the monarch’s private secretary apparently refused West’s resignation and told him via a reply letter: “You do what you like, you’re an actor. It’s nothing to do with us.”
West told the Radio Times magazine: “I think that’s probably how [Charles] regards it. I’ve been in a line to shake his hand a few times and it’s fascinating. It’s very useful to meet the character you’re playing, obviously.”
The actor will portray the then-Prince Charles in the forthcoming fifth season of The Crown, which dramatises the lives of the royal family in the first half of the 1990s.
He will star opposite Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II, Jonathan Pryce as the Duke of Edinburgh, and Elizabeth Debicki as Diana, Princess of Wales.
West also revealed that he met Camilla, Queen Consort, during a party last year. When he met her, it had recently been announced that he was cast as her husband.
He told the magazine that Camilla jokingly called him “Your Majesty” at the party.
The Crown has come under scrutiny in recent weeks after Dame Judy Dench and former UK prime minister Sir John Major called on Netflix to include a disclaimer that the show is a fictional dramatisation of the royal family’s lives.
The Skyfall star accused the series of “crude sensationalism” in a letter to The Times published on 19 October.
Meanwhile, Sir John described the rumoured plot lines in the show as “damaging and malicious fiction” and a “barrel-load of nonsense”.
The Crown will premiere on Netflix on 9 November.
