'The Crown' star Josh O'Connor says he feels 'defensive in a certain way' over Prince Charles

• Josh O'Connor played Prince Charles on season four of Netflix's "The Crown."
• He told THR on Wednesday that he feels "defensive in a certain way" over the 72-year-old royal.
• Still, the actor said he generally doesn't pay close attention to news about the British royal family.

Josh O'Connor spoke about his reaction to reading news reports about Prince Charles while in conversation with The Hollywood Reporter.

The actor played a younger version of the now-72-year-old British royal on season four of Peter Morgan's historical fiction drama "The Crown," streaming on Netflix.

Lacey Rose, an executive editor at The Hollywood Reporter, asked O'Connor if he gets "defensive" over Charles while consuming media about the royal family.

The 31-year-old Golden Globe-winner replied: "I suppose I do feel defensive in a certain way, I guess."

He noted that he doesn't routinely keep up with the British royal family's happenings. He didn't even watch Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey back in March.

"I'm the worst person to talk about the Meghan interview. I didn't watch it and I don't think I will, to be honest," O'Connor added.

"So any conversation about, 'Gee, what did you think about what Charles said last week?' I'm like, 'Guys, I have no idea," he admitted.

Since appearing on "The Crown" as Charles, O'Connor has made it abundantly clear that he's never bought into the public's fascination with the British royal family.

"I find it really hard pinning the real royal family to 'The Crown.' They feel so far removed," he told GQ's Stuart McGurk back in March. "Basically I had no interest in the royal family before I did 'The Crown.' And I have very little interest now."

Although he admittedly formed "a great fondness for Prince Charles as a person" because of the research he's conducted for his role, O'Connor said his liberal political views initially led him to decline the opportunity to read for "The Crown."

"I thought, I can't add anything to this," he told Kathryn Shattuck last year for The Irish Times. "I'm a republican. I'm not interested in the royal family."

After Morgan presented O'Connor with a scene comparing Charles to Saul Bellow's Dangling Man, an individual waiting to be drafted to war and discover his life's meaning, the actor changed his tune.

"He says, 'I'm essentially waiting for my mother to die in order for my life to take meaning,'" O'Connor recalled. "I read that line and I was like, 'Well, that's enough to get your teeth into.'"

Morgan's depiction of a sultry, whining Charles caused O'Connor great frustration during filming, leading the actor to try and champion the young royal in his lowest moments.

"It was hard at times. There were days on set when I would say, 'Can we do a scene where Charles does express himself to the Queen?'" he said during an interview with The Guardian's Tom Lamont.

"He's always told: shut up, shut up, shut up. I felt I had to advocate for him, a bit, and give him a voice. And always [when I made that case] the answer came back, 'No. This is the point. He doesn't have a voice, not yet,'" O'Connor said.

He left season four "a bit unsatisfied," wishing that Charles had a chance to explain his and Princess Diana's unraveling marriage "in his own words."

"It would have been a worse drama for that explanation. It wouldn't make sense for him to have a closure scene," O'Connor said. "But selfishly, I wish I'd had that closure."