Charles Spencer called the film “Spencer” terrible yet said Kristen Stewart caught Princess Diana’s spirit, a blunt family take on the Oscar-nominated portrait.
Princess Diana’s younger brother did not say much. During an interview with Tina Brown at a McNally Jackson Books event, Charles Spencer said he watched Pablo Larrain’s 2021 movie on a plane and walked away impressed by the lead performance and unimpressed by nearly everything else.
Variety reported that Spencer gave Stewart high marks for capturing his sister’s essence even as he dismissed the film itself. The comments land as he promotes his memoir, “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,” a book already described as having reignited tensions with the royal family and sparked a legal dispute with Piers Morgan.
Spencer said he felt obligated to see the movie once it appeared in front of him.
He told Brown:
“I was on a plane and I saw a movie called ‘Spencer.’ I thought I’d better look at that. And there was Kristen Stewart, who doesn’t really look like Diana, but my goodness, she caught the spirit,”
He went further on the performance, and on the finished product.
Spencer said:
“I thought it was an incredible performance. The film’s terrible. But I was really intrigued by how good she was at capturing Dana,”
That is the core of his review. Stewart earned an Oscar nomination for best actress for the role. Spencer’s praise tracks the awards attention. His verdict on Larrain’s film does not.
“Spencer” follows Diana over a Christmas holiday weekend with the royal family, as she moves toward ending her marriage to Prince Charles. The film also depicts her struggles with mental health and bulimia. Hollywood framed it as intimate psychological drama. Diana’s brother framed the movie as a poor vehicle that still featured a strong central turn.
While campaigning for the film, Stewart described her approach in an earlier Variety interview. She cast the job as an act of closeness rather than mimicry alone.
Stewart said:
“I needed to know her. It was just about loving her and absorbing her. You do the best impressions of people that you know, like you always do the best impression of your best friend,”
Spencer’s airport viewing put that method to a personal test. He noted she does not closely resemble Diana. He still credited her with catching the spirit. Coming from the princess’s brother, that distinction carries weight the promotional circuit cannot manufacture.
Other major screen versions of Diana have not made his watch list. Emma Corrin played her in season 4 of Netflix’s “The Crown.” Elizabeth Debicki took over for seasons 5 and 6. Both turns drew heavy awards talk.
Spencer said he has not seen the series. He offered a polite pass rather than a review.
“I know that the person who acted that part has received lots of awards, so I’m sure she did a good job. I’ve not seen it,” he said.
In other words, the brother who felt he “had better look” at “Spencer” has felt no similar duty toward the long-running royal drama. Selective attention is still a choice, and a revealing one.
Spencer’s book tour setting matters. “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister” is already tied to fresh strain with the royal family and to a legal fight with Piers Morgan. The McNally Jackson conversation with Brown put his screen opinions in that same public lane: family memory, media retellings, and who gets to define Diana for a mass audience.
Studios keep returning to her final years. Actors collect nominations. Streamers build multi-season arcs. The people who actually knew her are under no obligation to applaud the product. Spencer watched one film, credited the star, and called the movie terrible. That is clearer than most official statements out of palace circles.
Hollywood can bottle a likeness and sell a mood. A brother’s plain review still cuts through the fog, praise where it is earned, and no free pass for the rest.
