The Crown's Luther Ford Shares Text Conversation That Inspired Him to Audition for Prince Harry Role

Luther Ford is looking back on a memorable 2023.

In an Instagram post on New Year's Eve, the actor shared a carousel of images from throughout the year, including a screenshot of a text conversation that seems to have been the inspiration behind his audition to play teenage Prince Harry on The Crown.

As the post's seventh slide, Ford included a screenshot of a message exchange between himself and an unidentified person. The conversation begins with the person texting Ford a picture of a Facebook post advertising a casting call for The Crown, specifically seeking a "young actor to play Prince Harry in the next series."

Ford responds to the message by saying "Hahahaha my time has come," but follows it up by questioning himself, noting "I don't know if the resemblance is strong enough."

This prompts the person he's texting to respond, "Doesn't hurt to try," to which Ford concedes, "Haha okay will do."

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Elsewhere in the Instagram post, Ford shared flicks of himself alongside costars Ed McVey, who plays Prince William, and Meg Bellamy, who plays Kate Middleton. Beyond that, he also shared a screenshot of a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) containing an article that revealed his role on The Crown.

The aforementioned message exchange clearly had a profound impact on Ford, who captioned the entire post "Doesn't hurt to try," as an homage to the text he received, adding that they were "Wise words."

He concluded the caption by saying, "THE biGgeSt adventure so far 🌞 thank you everyone."

Ford was tasked with portraying Harry during some of the most formative years of his life on the hit Netflix series. His role picks up where Fflyn Edwards, who portrays Harry as a young boy earlier in Season 6, leaves off. Ford steps in as a teenage Harry to continue the story through the early 2000s, with The Crown particularly highlighting the relationship between Harry and William at the time.

"Pretty much everything relating to Harry in the series is about the relationship between William and Harry," the actor explained in an interview with Netflix's Tudum. "Every day that I was shooting, I was with Ed."

Despite The Crown being both Ford and McVey's professional acting debuts, the former noted to the publication that “He [McVey] had gone to drama school and he is an actor," which led to him mentoring Ford through the filming process. “He was very generous and kind and guided me through it all.”

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Ford cited a surprise factor as an advantage for him and his costars Ed McVey (Prince William) and Meg Bellamy (Kate Middleton): their age.

“Obviously, it is close to the present, but the fact that we didn't live through it means that there is a kind of natural distance for us. Someone older would feel that that was very familiar,” Ford, 23, said.

Parts 1 and 2 of The Crown Season 6 are available to stream on Netflix now.