With the release of the Diana movie imminent, tempers are flaring and nerves are fraying as the late Princess Diana’s ex-lover slams the movie and lead actress Naomi Watts awaits the royal family’s verdict.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, the 44-year-old actress revealed she almost didn’t accept the role.
“I turned it down twice,’ she said. “I was a little bit torn, but once I’d said no, I wasn’t completely at peace. Sometimes when you say no, you feel free, but it just wasn’t the case.
“The biggest reason that made me pause was how the princes were going to be feel about this,” she continued.
“There was something very intriguing about this woman’s life. It was extraordinary. She always lived a privileged life, but there was nothing ordinary about the construct she moved into. I liked the idea that there was this fame – no one at that level can really survive it – I think. It’s a very dark thing, but it’s kind of true.”
The turbulent movie explores Diana’s love affairs with British-Pakistani Dr Hasnat Khan and Egyptian billionaire Dodi Fayed before he and the princess were killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997.
Naomi is mindful that the release date of Diana comes so soon after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcomed their first son, Prince George, into the world.
“I do care deeply about how the princes feel, of course. I am a mum of two boys. But it was a story that was bound to be told at some point, and it’s possibly fresher than people expected,” she said.
Meanwhile, Princess Di’s ex-lover Hasnat Khan, who’s extensively depicted in the movie by actor Naveen Andrews, has slammed the movie’s credibility despite not having seen the film.
Khan claimed he saw enough from one still photograph of Naomi Watts and Naveen Andrews to know the movie wasn’t going to do justice to the truth.
“I could tell immediately those were never our mannerisms at all, with [my] hands folded behind the back and all that. You could tell from that picture that it is all just presumed about how we would behave with each other, and they have got it completely wrong,” he told UK’s The Mail.
“There wasn’t any hierarchy in our relationship. She wasn’t a Princess and I wasn’t a doctor. We were friends, and normal people stand like friends with each other. That one still picture told me a lot about how they will portray things in the film and I can see [it] is wrong.”
The 54-year-old surgeon said he never gave “tacit acceptance” to the filmmakers of Diana and will never watch the movie.
Khan, who was Diana’s partner of two-years, and who she dubbed “Mr Wonderful”, has been very quiet since Diana’s death, refusing to tell the story of the couple’s intimate relationship.
But Diana has now compelled him to break his silence – at least about the film.
“I don’t see this movie doing well at all,’ he said.
“It is based on gossip and Diana’s friends talking about a relationship that they didn’t know much about, and some of my relatives who didn’t know much about it either. It is all based on hypotheses and gossip.”
Officially, the film is based on Kate Snell’s 2001 book Diana: Her Last Love.
Related video: Naomi Watts Worried About the Royal Family’s Reaction to ‘Diana’.
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