‘The Crown’ Season 6: Elizabeth Debicki Felt ‘Trapped’ Filming ‘Horrendous’ Princess Diana Paparazzi Scenes
As Netflix’s The Crown dives deeper into Princess Diana’s last days, it also focuses on another significant character in her story, the paparazzi. As Diana’s romance with Dodi Al Fayed grew, press interest in their love story intensified. To properly document that period in Diana’s life, Elizabeth Debicki was made to feel like her, swarmed by paparazzi in some key scenes. The actor says she felt “trapped” filming these “horrendous” scenes.
Elizabeth Debicki felt very much like Princess Diana during ‘The Crown’s’ paparazzi ambush
Princess Diana was one of the most photographed women in the world. Therefore, any move she made, both within and outside of the royal family, was heavily documented.
However, when she began a romance with Dodi Al Fayed on the heels of a breakup with surgeon Hasnat Kahn, paparazzi interest in her new relationship was at an all-time high. The Crown captured these moments for the first episodes of its final season.
“Trying to get from one place to another and to have this swarm around you, you feel very trapped. It’s an unpleasant experience,” Elizabeth Debicki, who plays Diana in season 6, revealed in an interview with Variety. “It’s really horrendous to have that many people yelling at you and wanting something. So we let it happen because it feels like a very important part of the story to tell.”
‘The Crown’s’ recreation of these ‘invasive’ moment was ‘difficult’
Creating an authentic feel around the moments when Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed’s relationship became worldwide news was essential to season 6 of The Crown. The paparazzi effectively became the third person in the couple’s burgeoning relationship.
However, that doesn’t mean that recreating times when paparazzi swarmed Diana and Dodi didn’t profoundly affect Elizabeth Debicki. She called those filming moments “difficult” and “invasive.”
“It was difficult to recreate,” Debicki shared. “It was heavy and very manic and incredibly invasive.”
The actor continued, “And it had a kind of pressure to it. At times, it’s almost like an anomalistic response to being pursued by that many actors playing the press because there’s nowhere you can go, and you only have to be in a situation like that for about a minute before you realize this is completely unbearable.”
The swarm of paparazzi surrounding Princess Diana during her final days was crushing. Ultimately, the press chased the couple’s car into a Paris tunnel.
Henri Paul, the Ritz’s assistant director of security, was behind the wheel, Trevor Reese-Jones, Dodi’s bodyguard, sat in the front seat, and Diana and Dodi were seated in the back of the car. The car tried to evade paparazzi chasing the vehicle on motorcycles and, ultimately, crashed into a concrete support column.
Dodi and Paul were killed instantly. Reese-Jones survived. Diana was taken to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where she went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at approximately 3 a.m. She was 36 years old.
How long did Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed date?
On the heels of breaking up with Hasnat Kahn, Princess Diana became romantically linked to filmmaker Dodi Al Fayed in July 1997. The pair spent time together in south France on a yacht owned by Dodi’s father, billionaire businessman and then-owner of Harrods department store, Mohamed Al Fayed.
Diana and Dodi continued spending time together in August 1997. They were subsequently photographed on a yacht in the Mediterranean and spent time together at Dodi’s London residences in London.
The press attention surrounding the couple intensified. But it truly came to a head when the couple traveled to Paris, France, on Aug. 30, 1997. However, in the early hours of Aug. 31, after a dinner at the Ritz Paris, Princess Diana and Dodi were killed in a car crash as they attempted to evade photographers.
The Crown has not recreated the crash that ultimately took Princess Diana’s life. The series’ first four episodes of season 6 are now available to stream on Netflix.
