Playing Prince Harry in the final season of Netflix’s “The Crown,” Luther Ford said he felt like royalty.

The actor, who was still a student when he was cast in the role, said he would be picked up by a chauffeur from the apartment he shared with roommates in Bournemouth, a coastal city in England, and be driven to an ornate set or a British castle, where he was surrounded by well-known actors.

“It was a complete change” from his previous life, the 23-year-old said in an interview last month, adding that being a part of the show “doesn’t stop surprising me.”

Before “The Crown,” Ford said he had not been on a professional set or considered acting as an occupation. When Netflix announced it would welcome applications from newcomers for the part of Prince Harry, a friend suggested that Ford audition. In October 2022, he got the part, took a break from college, where he was studying filmmaking production, and a month later started shooting the show.

The show’s sixth and final season was split in two, with the final six episodes arriving Dec. 14. The first batch of episodes took place in the summer of 1997, around Princess Diana’s fatal car crash. The final episodes see Ford’s Harry and Prince William (Ed McVey) grappling with their mother’s death and life as very famous teenage royalty. While William heads to college, meets Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy) and begins to contemplate one day becoming king, Harry struggles to find purpose, and his drinking and weed smoking start to concern the family.