73The King's Speech (2010)

Prince Albert was horrified to find greatness thrust upon him when his brother, King Edward, abdicated the throne. A gentle man with a profound stutter, he was unprepared for the role of King, but he had no choice in the matter. Writer David Seidler was first drawn to King George VI as a child, because he suffered with a stutter as well. But the true story had long been repressed, so research was difficult, he explained in the Los Angeles Times. “It’s an embarrassment, and it’s swept under the carpet—even today, but much, much more then.” He even wrote to the Queen Mother to ask permission to write the script, “and she wrote back, ‘Please, not in my lifetime. The memory of those events is still too painful.’ And when the Queen Mum says to an Englishman, ‘Wait,’ an Englishman waits. I didn’t figure I’d have to wait this long.”