In Netflix’s hit series The Crown, from creator and showrunner Peter Morgan, audiences watch as the innermost political struggles, romantic intrigues, and scandals of the British Royal Family play out since Queen Elizabeth’s ascent to the throne began in the ‘40s. In Season 5, Dominic West and Olivia Williams take up the helm of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles during a tumultuous time in the family’s reign.

During an interview with Collider’s Editor-in-Chief Steve Weintraub, West and Williams discuss how their understanding of the Royal family has changed since joining the cast and how being behind the scenes of The Crown is like being “kidnapped by a very posh circus.” They also share the experience of filming the final Season 6 of the series, highlight Neuroendocrine Cancer Awareness, discuss dealing with more criticism in the current seasons, and what it’s like working with Morgan. You can watch the video above, or read the full transcript below. The Crown also stars Academy Award-winner Olivia Colman, Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Pryce, Lesley Manville, Helena Bonham Carter, Claire Foy, Matt Smith, and Elizabeth Debicki.

COLLIDER: For both of you, you've done so many things in your careers. If someone has never seen anything that you've done before, what is the first thing you'd like them watching and why?

DOMINIC WEST: I think Season 5 of The Crown.

OLIVIA WILLIAMS: Good answer. That'll be 50 bucks, thank you very much.

WEST: Yeah, I think The Crown, obviously it's foremost in my mind. I think it's a wonderful show and there's a lot less of it to watch than The Wire, so I'd start with The Crown.

WILLIAMS: He's covered The Crown, so I'm going to say I made a TV show that not enough people watched called Manhattan, which was about the Manhattan Project. Please all, spend your money, go and watch it. It's informative and brilliant and beautifully written and beautifully shot.

WEST: What's it on?

WILLIAMS: I think you can buy it on Amazon. It was originally on WGN America.

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Image via Netflix

I don't mean to talk about another show. I watched every episode of Manhattan-

WILLIAMS: I love you for that.

It was spectacular. I believe Sam Shaw was the showrunner, and I loved it. It's a fantastic show.

WILLIAMS: We're getting very restless people from Netflix here, can we bring it back to The Crown now, please?

100%. One of the things about The Crown is that every aspect of the show is just spectacular, from the production design to everything. What is it like behind the scenes making the show when you're working with such talented people in every department?

WEST: Yeah, it's amazing. It's like settling into the back of one of those amazing 1990s Bentleys that I get to drive around in occasionally on this show. I mean, it's very like that. You feel incredibly supported and surrounded by extreme prosperity.

WILLIAMS: It's like being kidnapped by a very posh circus. You get taken in a car, and the crunch of gravel tells you [that] you've arrived at a stately home, and then there's a big top the way you go in and come out looking like a member of the royal family. It's lovely.

Do you have a new appreciation or outlook on the royal family after making the show and inhabiting these characters? Has it changed your opinion or perception of the royal family?

WEST: Yeah, I mean many things have changed. I didn't really think about Charles much before. One of the things is, Josh O'Connor was very good at identifying the fiddling that Charles does. He's always fiddling with his clothes whenever he gets out [of] the car. I noticed wearing those clothes, that if you want to look immaculate, you have to fiddle the whole time. Check that your cuffs are here, that your tie is right up here, [and] that your little handkerchief is poking out enough. So actually, what appeared to be nervous ticks I discovered are the only way that you can do as he does, which is [to] look immaculate at all times. So that was one small thing.

Another thing I noticed that surprised me was how many people he's met and how that very much defines his idea of the modern monarchy. That his role is to draw attention to the needs of people, ordinary people, of which he's met more than probably anyone who's ever lived, except the queen.

WILLIAMS: I think my discovery was particularly in the nineties, that any photograph we have of Camilla was taken by a man hidden in a bush who was probably trespassing on her property, and if she looked hatchet-faced and miserable, that's because she either didn't know she was being photographed in the most unhappy time of her life, or she just realized there was a man in a bush with a camera taking a picture of her. What's been wonderful is to see her emerge from that without being vindictive, without ever having her story, or some version of events, to put the record straight. She's just emerged as a warm and forgiving person who now winks at the press who so tormented her.

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Image via Netflix

For people in America, I don't think they realize how brutal the British press can be. It's a different level over there.

WEST: Yeah, they're horrible.

WILLIAMS: Absolutely. God bless them. We love them. Yes. Thanks, guys.

Before I run out of time with you, I know you guys are filming the final season, and I'm curious how that has been going because it's the end of this great series.

WEST: Yeah, well it's extraordinary because, of course, it comes at the time after the Queen's death when I suppose The Crown has attracted more criticism than probably before. It's also the most tumultuous season in many ways. It also covers the time that most people remember since the start of the show. So it's a very exciting and daunting time to be doing this material because you're aware of the responsibility. These are people are still alive and that's an immense responsibility.

WILLIAMS: Well, also Netflix and Peter Morgan are just so at the top of their game now. You've got these extraordinary episodes in Season 5, where you can have the luxury of an episode about the Romanoffs, or an episode just about divorce. It's much more a philosophical show than just a sort of chronological retelling.

Can I steal five minutes of your time, or two seconds of your time, to say that today is World Neuroendocrine Cancer Awareness Day, and I've had neuroendocrine cancer, and Steve Jobs and Aretha Franklin died of it, and people need to be more aware because incidents have increased by 371% since the nineties?

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Image via Netflix

Is that true?

WILLIAMS: Yes. 371% more common in the 2020s than it was in the 1990s, mostly because now we know how to diagnose it.

I was going to ask you if it's because people can diagnose or is it something in the air?

WILLIAMS: It took them four years to diagnose me.

I'm so sorry because that must-

WILLIAMS: That's all right, I'm fine, I'm here. If you could put a word in for neuroendocrine cancer awareness, I'd be very grateful.

I can absolutely do that, and I'd be happy to do that actually.

WILLIAMS: Thank you.

My last thing for you, I want to ask about Peter Morgan because he's such a talented writer, and I'm curious what it's like working with someone who clearly is so gifted with his ability on the page.

WILLIAMS: Yeah, what's brilliant about the way he writes this is that people have said, "Why have you got..." For example, the “Tampongate” scene, and he brings it always back to everything has an impact on The Crown. How that conversation, and it's being taped and released to the press, impacted The Crown. So every time there is something that you question as, “Why is this there?” just look, and think about how that had an impact on the monarchy. It always will be under an underlying truth, that it had an impact on the monarchy in this country.

WEST: Two things, I think. One, I was very surprised how much you had an input that you could change his mind. You could have a discussion about lines and approaches, which he very much listened to. The second thing, I think what's his genius is his ability to find the story, the interesting story. He encapsulated the other day, in the press conference, when he said about the marriage of Charles and Diana, that what interested him was it was the biggest wedding of all time, the most famous wedding probably of all time that marched by more people than ever. Therefore this great, great love fairytale, which ended in a divorce court in London where they were couple 32 or 33, and you instantly see the story there. You see the whole arc, and what's interesting about it. That's his genius, I think, his distilling it down to around this whole mass of events that for him was the interesting thing. You could see why he's so good at coming up with what's interesting in The Crown.

The Crown is available to stream on Netflix. You can watch our interview with Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce below: