Season 3 of Netflix’s royal drama premieres this Sunday.
Fortunately for OConnor, perhaps, they did not.
I was like, Sure, that sounds great.
Colin Hutton / Netflix
They were like, And you’ve got the option to ride a horse.
And I was like, Absolutelynot.
Never been anywhereneara horse.
Theres this assumption that every British actor, they can ride horses.
So, Okay, no problem, well give you a lesson.
I had one lesson with Devils Horsemen, who do a lot of the horse-riding stuff for films.
They train actors to look reasonable on horses.
They doGame of Thrones, everything.
And they were great.
But Id never been on a horse.
Then they said, Well send [you to] the polo guy.
The polo guy was this Irish coach, whos now a really great friend.
[He] put me on the horse and I was off.I was sort of flailing around.
But by the time we shot the thing I was hitting balls with the stick!
I was going to carry on but then I looked at how expensive it is.
It isthemost expensive sport in the world.
I was like, uh, maybe I cant.
But that was really fun.
And actually I watched that [footage] back yesterday.
It looks pretty amazing.
OConnors preparation was not limited to the equestrian arts.
Ive never researched anything so much, he says.
Youre so supported on this show.
Weve got teams of people.
You go, What was happening on this day in this year?
And suddenly youve got the research.
Its really weird, really weird, says OConnor of working with such high wattage actors.
It doesnt really get better than that.
Its just like going to school again, learning from them.
Its just a dream come true really.
The Crownseason 3 premieres Sunday on Netflix.
