Recreating Princess Diana’s turmoil with paparazzi was ‘difficult, very heavy and manic’, says The Crown’s Elizabeth Debicki

Elizabeth Debicki found it ‘very difficult’ and ‘very tough’ to re-enact scenes where Princess Diana was hounded by the press.

The Australian actress, 33, who has played the late royal since series five of Peter Morgan’s The Crown, spoke about the experience in a behind-the-scenes featurette.

“It’s a really unique challenge as an actor to portray those days because we know where the story is going,” she said.

“It’s really a very fast-paced sequel in terms of the actual timeline of the season five story.”

The final four episodes, which Netflix released today, will focus on her relationship with Dodi Fayed (played by Khalid Abdalla) and sharpen the tabloids’ interest in their budding romance.

“I don’t really know any people who can stand that,” Elizabeth added, noting the attention the couple received in the newspaper.

“It was very difficult to recreate, it was very heavy, manic and incredibly invasive.”

She and Khalid “make themselves present in every moment of the scene” because a lot of the story is… a beautiful time” – but takes a turn after the “press element” is introduced.

Khalid added that portraying the romance was a “huge responsibility.”

“I hope that when the public sees it, they feel like we did a good job,” he said. ‘And honored by how sensitive it is.

‘It’s what we experience in all tragedies. It’s not about you knowing the ending, you knowing the ending. It’s about exploring as closely as possible the tensions that bring you to that place.’

For this series, The Crown recreated the final moments before their fatal car crash in Paris in 1997.

In a terrifying clip, shared today as the first part of the final season of the Peter Morgan drama is released, Diana and Dodi are shown getting into a car outside the Ritz Hotel in Paris, which Dodi owned.

The 33-year-old actress, who has played the late beloved royal since series five of Peter Morgan’s The Crown, spoke about the experience in a behind-the-scenes featurette

Speaking in a hallway prior to their fateful final trip, Dodi asks Henri Paul, the Ritz’s deputy head of security, if the couple is safe to travel.

In French, Henri explains that two staffers have brought a decoy vehicle with them so that the coast is clear for Diana and Dodi.

“No one will see us leave, believe me,” he tells Dodi.

But as the couple walk to the Mercedes-Benz W140, they are flanked by paparazzi.

Ominous music then plays as the driver asks Diana if everything is okay, before Dodi tells Henri – who is driving the vehicle – ‘allez’.

The clip is then disabled before the crash.

Netflix has previously said that the show will not show the crash itself, but will show events leading up to and the aftermath of Diana’s death.

In the scene, Diana calls Balmoral to talk to her sons, but as an assistant is told “you missed them.”

The emotional first four episodes cover the tragic car crash in Paris that killed Princess Diana in August 1997 – along with her lover Dodi and their driver Henri Paul – and the royal family’s reaction to it, as well as the summer holiday where Diana and Dodi enjoyed it. in St Tropez prior to the tragedy.

The Paris scenes were shot in the French capital, while a yacht was rented for the St. Tropez scenes, although they were actually shot in Mallorca.

For sensitivity reasons, the exact moment of Diana’s death is not recreated, but there are controversial scenes in which Charles tenderly talks to an imaginary Diana in the cabin of the royal plane as he accompanies her body from Paris to London, and later when she also appears to the Queen.

Critics who have seen these scenes have called them “farcical” for depicting Diana as a ghost, but series creator Peter Morgan has insisted this was not the intention.

The emotional first four episodes are about the tragic car accident in Paris that killed Princess Diana in August 1997. Pictured: Elizabeth Debicki and Khalid Abdalla

The final four episodes, which Netflix released today, will focus on her relationship with Dodi Fayed (played by Khalid Abdalla) and sharpen the tabloids’ interest in their budding romance. Both pictured in St. Tropez in 1997

The Paris scenes were shot in the French capital, while a yacht was rented for the St. Tropez scenes, although they were actually shot in Mallorca

“I never imagined it would be the ghost of Diana in the traditional sense of the word,” he told Variety magazine. “It was she who continued to live vividly in the minds of those she left behind.”

The Crown was created by Morgan after the success of his 2006 film about the royal family’s response to Diana’s death, The Queen.

And the series – which has earned 21 Emmys and dozens of BAFTA nominations, not to mention some criticism for its historical inaccuracies – covers the same ground, but uses new information gathered in the 17 years since the Oscar-winning movie was made.

In fact, the scripts had to be constantly updated as the Royal Family was in the news throughout the filming period, not only after the Queen’s death, but also after the publication of Prince Harry’s memoir Spare.