How you eat your asparagus may reveal how ‘posh’ you are, an etiquette expert has revealed – after the actor who played King Charles in The Crown nearly committed a dining faux pas when, in one scene, he used a knife and fork to eat the vegetable.
Speaking to History EXTRA Magazine, Annie Sulzberger – Head of Research at the show – said that while filming, Dominic West tried to reach for the cutlery while tucking into the delicacy.
‘Our amazing etiquette adviser, David Rankin Hunt, stopped him and said: posh people don’t eat asparagus with knives and forks – they use their fingers,’ she said.
‘So we reset and reshot it with Dom picking up the asparagus with his fingers.
‘It’s important to have so many voices who can chime in with their experience, because I don’t think I would have been able to look up the way in which two posh people would have eaten asparagus back in 1992.’
Major David Rankin-Hunt, who worked for the royal family for 33 years in two roles, has advised makers of The Crown on everything from satorial choices to salutes and umbrellas.
Speaking to Femail in 2015, one etiquette expert revealed another set of rules when it comes to eating the delicacy.
‘If served as a first course, rather than an accompaniment vegetable, these are eaten with the hands and dipped into the hollandaise sauce,’ William Hanson explained.
‘Brits will eat these with the left hand (leaving the right hand free of grease, ready to shake hands or pick up a wine glass, for example); there are some cultures where eating with the left hand is not the done thing, in this case, they may eat the asparagus with the right hand. (Not many know the left-hand rule today.)
‘You may double-dip in the sauce so long as it is your own portion.’
It comes Dominic has also recently admitted that he ‘understands’ criticism of the show – and ‘acknowledges there’s discomfort about it’.
Speaking on BBC 5 Live this week, the actor told presenter Nihal Arthanayake that he had ‘persuaded himself that the Royal Family are public property and therefore fair game’.
‘But I’m still uncomfortable with the thought of anyone being fair game or anyone’s private life being made public,’ he added.
The actor also said he can see why ‘people think this is too close to the actual events’ – with series of six of the show tackling Princess Diana’s death as well as the late Queen’s funeral planning.
‘The grief is still so, so real,’ he continued. ‘I did think a lot about that, I still do.
‘Ultimately, you have to put your trust in Peter’s hands and he’s a proven great dramatist.’
Dominic also explained he found it difficult to play the monarch as ‘extremely emotional’ this season.
The Netflix star earlier this week also claimed that Charles was judged too harshly when Diana died.
He believes that history should be kinder to the now-King, who he believes has ‘made every mistake going’.
Dominic, previously most famous for his role as Jimmy McNulty in The Wire, believes Charles was seen as a ‘villain’ after his ex-wife died with Dodi Fayed on the night of August 30.
In season six, which premiered last month with the final episodes released last week, Charles crumbles into tears when he learns of his ex-wife’s death in Paris. He then defied his mother and pushed for the royal plane to be sent to France to collect her coffin, sobbing loudly when he saw her body for the first time at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital.
Dominic said: ‘You do feel a sympathy for him. I think that, particularly around Diana’s death, he was the villain of the piece. And I think perhaps now that we’ve had 25 years of retrospective to look back on, we might judge that — I certainly have judged that — as being a bit harsh on him’.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, he revealed: ‘I’m fighting for him as one does as an actor for any character, except perhaps the most villainous. Inevitably, you’re trying to get inside the mind of your character and that requires a sort of sense of common humanity and empathy’.
He said he has grown to ‘adore’ playing Charles in the show, admitting he is sad that the role has ended.
In an interview with Town and Country he said: ‘I miss him. I’m still reading all the news articles about him. I adore him. I feel real affection for him, which I didn’t particularly feel before’, adding: ‘He’s likable, as well as an interesting character’.
He referenced recent events, such as Charles’ anger when his pen failed to work after the Queen died.
‘It’s hard not to bring the present man into the historic man, or even the real man into Peter Morgan’s version of him. But it was a wonderful gift to have all that coronation stuff and the pen—the irritation about the pen. You don’t get many glimpses of what’s going on behind the public persona. So I greedily devoured all those moments. They are gold dust to an actor, really’.
He added: ‘He’s made every mistake going. He’s been through it all, it’s been about as bad as it can get. And he’s been grilled about as hard as he possibly could be. And so I imagine, like with so much in his life, I think there’s a certain resolution now he’s King. I think there’s a certain, probably relief, that he no longer is allowed to be political or outspoken’.
He added: ‘He’s landed on his feet—or with a crown on his head, more accurately’.
The last series of The Crown has proved controversial and had mixed reviews, from the depiction of Diana’s death to Charles’ wedding to Camilla and the Queen’s existential crisis over the future of the monarchy.
There are also a series of bizarre dream sequences when senior royals including the Queen and Charles speak with the late Princess, played by Elizabeth Debicki, after her death.
Harry’s embarrassment over wearing a Nazi uniform to a party has been gleefully recreated by Netflix in the very last episode of The Crown.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
