# The crown that gave Woody Norman a splitting headache

> Playing a teenage king in Paul Greengrass's new drama came with a steel crown that had been bent out of shape on day one.
- Title: The crown that gave Woody Norman a splitting headache
- Summary: Playing a teenage king in Paul Greengrass's new drama came with a steel crown that had been bent out of shape on day one. The glamour shot hides the grind…
- Keywords: film, woody norman, the uprising, casting, on set, entertainment, culture, crown, gave, Woody, Norman, splitting
- Source: Variety — https://variety.com/2026/film/global/the-uprising-star-norman-playing-king-richard-ii-going-meatless-age-10-joaquin-phoenix-1236857404
- Author: Marc Malkin
- Published: 2026-09-12T00:36:21+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: film, woody norman, the uprising, casting, on set, entertainment, culture
## A teenager plays a king
Woody Norman, now 17, stars as the 14-year-old King Richard II in The Uprising, Paul Greengrass's historical fiction drama for Focus Features.
## The crown broke immediately
Production had exactly one crown for him. It got damaged on the first day of filming and never sat right again.

> So it didn't fit my head
## Steel against his head
The bent metal pressed into his skull through every take. No amount of adjustment fixed the shape.

> It was steel against my head.
## Foam didn't fix it
The crew padded the inside and kept shooting anyway. Norman finished each day with a splitting headache.

> We had put foam in it, but it didn't work.
## Telling it from a hotel room
He recounted the whole ordeal over Zoom from Los Angeles, a few hours before the film premiered at the DGA in West Hollywood.
## Key takeaway

The glamour shot hides the grind: Norman wore a broken steel crown every shooting day and went home with a headache.