The Crown, Netflix's upcoming glittery binge-watch about the early days of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, begins with a wedding. Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark renounces "his Greek nationality and all foreign titles," becoming Lt. Philip Mountbatten, in order to marry Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth, heir to the British throne. It's an obvious love match.

Elizabeth started corresponding with Philip when she was just 13 and he was an 18-year-old naval officer. No one wanted her to marry him — he was poor, exiled royalty, and considered an unfit consort for one who would be Queen of England. But she put her foot down, and the two wed on November 20, 1947.

Five years later, in 1952, King George VI died suddenly after a brief struggle with lung cancer, and Elizabeth ascended the throne, much earlier than either she or Philip had planned.

The Crown shows the strain her coronation places on their relationship, as Elizabeth struggles with wanting to be a model 1950s wife to her strong-willed husband, while having to also be his monarch. Philip, on the other hand, must come to terms with the idea that he won't be able to have the career or life he's dreamed of. He must give it up to support his wife as royal consort, a role traditionally associated with women.

So, while The Crown begins on a happy occasion, it ends on a pretty tense note. We sat down with Claire Foy and Matt Smith to discuss the royal relationship, and whether or not this is actually a love story.

One thing that comes up throughout the series is Elizabeth's struggle between her life as a wife and mother, and her duties as a queen. What was that like to play?

Claire Foy: “I think it takes a huge amount of forgetting how easy it is for us now. I know it sounds silly, but...just to have an opinion. Looking back, you forget that at that period of time people weren't quite so in control of their own lives. They didn't have the expectations of their life that we do now and so I think for Elizabeth, it's a very different scenario, because obviously, she knew she was going to be Queen. But I think her ambition was her family and her husband. And you very clearly got that from what she did. That she really, genuinely, very eagerly went with [Philip] to Malta and supported him in his career and just stayed at home and went to the shops, had her hair done — loved it. [She] wanted to put on the parties; wanted to be the dutiful wife and wanted to support his career. Then, all of sudden, that's taken away. And you sort of don't have an option. Now, we have a choice and we can say, 'I want to do this, and I want to do this,' but then, there was no choice.”