Murray Fraser and Parisa Fitz-Henley had never been told they looked like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. In fact, neither of them really followed the royals at all — until they wound up playing them in Lifetime's new movie Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance. The film tells the story of the the world's it couple just a week before the IRL duo ties the knot. While that particular royal wedding will be picture perfect, the stars of the Lifetime adaptation told Refinery29 that their movie takes a look at the more complicated aspects of their relationship that we won't hear about on the big day. Namely, Markle's background.
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Markle is American, divorced, and half-black, making her introduction to the Royal Family certainly untraditional, something the film explores in depth.
"Although this movie focuses on the romance, it really takes into account these people as whole people and their relationship as a whole couple," Fitz-Henley said. "They definitely deal with the issues that they face because of Meghan’s background, being half black half white, it deals with how she’s received by the folks in his circle, it deals with how the media behaves and how they had to react to that."
Despite how pictures make it seem, Fitz-Henley stresses the relationship was not "a light stroll through the flowers." To do it justice, they had to portray "the things that they struggle with that make them an interesting pair."
Their story is so important because, as Fitz-Henly described, there's so much division in the world right now, but Prince Harry and Markle are an example of when two people get it right.
"In particular you have these two people who have such perceived differences. Differences of culture, nationality, race — it represents what I think a lot of us are struggling with in the entire world," she said. "How do we bridge divides? And we definitely see a divide bridged here and we see a lot of love and friendship between them, and I think a lot of people are journeying for more of that in their lives. I know I like it."
So yes, come for the Harry and Meghan romance — the proposal scene, in particular, is the actors' favorite — but stay for the deeper looks it gives us about what happened underneath.
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"This is a solid union and something that things can really grow from and I think people should know that," Fitz-Henly made sure to add. "You’re going to be on a full ride with the film."
Tune in to the drama and the romance on Lifetime on May 13 at 8 p.m. ET
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