John Lithgow

The other thing that happened was I arrived in England and all the English actors were so enthusiastic about the idea.

I mean, I've done a lot of acting in England, playing English roles, even listening to this clip that you've just played.

I can hear my Americanism, but there's a certain excitement to mingling an American energy with an English character.

I mean, I'm speaking as objectively as I can about this.

I've read this in one or two reviews.

Sometimes, it helps sort of enliven

The drama or the comedy, this was particularly true of Churchill, and they somehow felt they wanted to shake things up, as they did in every way on The Crown.

The Crown is such a surprising show.

Because these very familiar characters whom you know in the most public way possible, the queen, the king, the prince, the princesses, to actually go into their lives and see them in intimate settings and having very, very human problems and conflicts, that was what was arresting about the crown.

Well, in a sense, that was true of portraying Churchill this way.

Yes, yes.

I experimented with that when I was still in America before I went over there.

I used a melon baller to create these little balls of apple and I put them in the back of my cheeks.

Churchill had this unique lisp that was generated by the back of his tongue.

And it worked wonderfully.

I even took my melon baller and an apple to one of the first rehearsals, which was nothing but sitting around the table and talking.

But I proposed this idea in front of everybody.

I carved out two little apple balls and stuck them in the back and spoke and spoke some of my lines, and I believe I read one of the scenes.

And it was sensational, but my mouth immediately filled up with apple cider, you know.

I mean, and I was spitting all over the table.