This Netflix drama offered Vanessa Kirby one of her first TV roles and brought her to the spotlight

Before she joined the Mission: Impossible and Fast & Furious franchises or landed the role of Sue Storm in Marvel’s The Fantastic Four, Vanessa Kirby was already turning heads on the small screen. One of her earliest television performances came in Netflix’s The Crown, a historical drama that didn’t just showcase royal life, it gave Kirby a layered role that would define her early career.

She played Princess Margaret in the show’s first two seasons, portraying a young royal who lived in the shadow of her sister, Queen Elizabeth II. At the time, the name Vanessa Kirby wasn’t widely known outside of theater circles and a few independent films, but her time on The Crown changed that completely. With just two seasons, she became a recognizable face, and more importantly, an actress that critics and casting directors started watching closely.

The role wasn’t simple, it came with real historical baggage, emotional weight, and complicated relationships, but Vanessa Kirby didn’t flinch. What she delivered was far from a standard period drama performance, and The Crown gave her the space to build a version of Margaret that would leave an impact long after she left the series.

How Vanessa Kirby’s role in The Crown set the stage for her Hollywood breakout

Vanessa Kirby played Princess Margaret in Seasons 1 and 2 of The Crown, and it is the role that completely altered her career trajectory. Before Kirby, Margaret was often viewed as a footnote in royal history, known for her rebellious streak, headline-making relationships, and frustration with her royal duties.

Kirby’s version added weight and dimension. She didn’t play Margaret for laughs or for the sake of drama. She played the character as someone deeply aware of her status, struggling with a life that always felt like it was being controlled by others.

One of the biggest turning points for her character came during the storyline involving Group Captain Peter Townsend. The show explored their relationship in detail, how they fell in love, how the press got involved, and how Elizabeth ultimately stopped the marriage because Townsend was divorced. Kirby didn’t overplay the emotion in those scenes. She let the silence and stillness speak. You could see the anger buried under restraint. The heartbreak didn’t just impact Margaret’s love life, it shaped how she moved through every relationship after that.

Kirby also had to show Margaret as someone both jealous of and loyal to her sister. She made that conflict feel believable. In one moment, Margaret would snap at Elizabeth for her coldness. In the next, she would defend the crown without hesitation. It’s not a dynamic many actors could have pulled off without falling into caricature. Kirby, however, played her with just enough edge to make you feel like Margaret knew she wouldd never really matter as much as her sister, even if she stole the spotlight.

What made Kirby’s work even more challenging is that she wasn’t just creating a fictional character. She was setting the foundation for two other actors — Helena Bonham Carter and Lesley Manville, who would later portray Margaret as the series moved forward in time. Kirby had to make choices that would carry into future versions of the character. Her tone, her posture, her way of speaking, all of it had to match the idea of a younger Margaret who would eventually age into someone broken, tired, and more bitter.

The show didn’t sugarcoat Margaret’s flaws either. Her Margaret smoked constantly, drank at all hours, and self-destructed during public appearances. But none of it felt like overacting. It came from a place of real dissatisfaction. She had no purpose beyond the photo ops and protocol. Kirby showed how that kind of boredom and disappointment could eat away at someone’s confidence. Even when she was smiling at parties, her eyes told a different story.

Vanessa Kirby’s final episodes in The Crown closed with Margaret spiraling after another failed relationship. She begins to understand that love will always take a backseat to duty in her family. It’s not just a sad moment. It is a breaking point. After she left the show, critics looked back and pointed to her performance as one of the strongest in the entire series. It wasn’t flashy, but it stuck. And it’s the reason casting directors started putting her on their shortlists right after.

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