Una of the revelations of The Crown 5? Dodi Al-Fayed and the father Mohamed (absolute protagonists of the third episode: Mou Mou – its diminutive). The two actors who play them, Khalid Abdalla and Salim Dawhad anticipated a The National new the focus on the two of them and the enthusiasm for the opportunity to tell about their edgy relationship. With the portrait of Dodi that goes beyond that of playboy that he has conquered Dianato analyze the figure of a man who has suffered for one mother who has seen little and for a father bulky and authoritarian. True mogul of personal affirmation despite everything and everyone.
The new protagonists of The Crown 5
“I am so happy, i’m dancing, i’m laughing, i make people around me laugh because i’m happy. I am so lucky. How much can I tell? How many times?”. While he talks in direct zoom with the English newspaper, Salim Daw – longtime Palestinian actor – and just happy. It is understood, in The Crown 5 is Mohamed Al Fayed, tycoon owner of the Ritz Hotel in Paris, Harrods and also an Oscar (actually conquered by his son Dodi with Moments of gloryin 1982).
A significant role in the trajectory of real events, and in particular of the Netflix series. “You can have this once in a lifetime opportunity as an actor, to play a character like this ».
To echo him there Khalid Abdalla (known for The Kite Runner – 2007), once the son Dodi, that dies with Diana in the tunnel ofAlma in Paris on 31 August ’97. “When I met Peter (Morgan, the creator of the series, ed) I asked him: «Will he be a merely symbolic character, a passing figure? Fortunately, the answer was ‘no’ ». And indeed Dodi (and also of the father) are finally told i hitherto unknown sides, the only ones who can explain what kind of bond has been created between them and the English royal family.
On the left Khalid Abdalla (Dodi), on the right Mohamed Al Fayed (Salim Daw). (Netflix)
Dodi and Diana: two similar painful paths
“I had great respect in getting myself into Dodibecause I felt the responsibility of this role, ”he says Khalid Abdalla, “I told myself that I had to study to understand who this person really was. TO Dodi nHe was not allowed to see his mother for most of his life, went to boarding schools and had one very rough and complicated relationship with his fathertoo bulky character ».
Khalid Abdalla and Salim Daw at the premier of “The Crown 5”. (Getty Images)
The actor, who has “studied” the part by sifting through original documents and videos, explains that on an emotional and psychological levelthe inner path of Dodi wasn’t that different from Diana’s. And to understand this, and make it understood by the viewers, «nOne cannot ignore the parental relationship fundamental that was the basis of the boy’s training. Dodi’s inner tangles are essential to understanding and exploring the pain that united him with Diana“.
Waiting for The Crown 6
In the third episode Mou Mou, Mohamed Al-Fayed is a boy from Alexandria in Egypt (born January 27, 1929) with a fascination for Great Britain, it seems he was born from a visit to the city of Edward and Wallis in the thirties. The desire to excel and play games with the greats they then show him at the Ritz buying and selling tableoccasion in which he knows the valet of exiled royal couple and he hires him to get to grips with every rule of English etiquette.
With Harrods – the warehouses of the royal family – touches a place next to Elizabeth, and after the Oscar won by her son for Moments of gloryscolds him that all the other films he has produced have been a disaster. All this while having 4 children with Heini Wathénsocialite and former Finnish model married in 1985.
Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Daw). (Netflix)
In the series the scenes in which Dodi and with Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) are few, indeed only one: in Ascotwhen Diana replaces Elizabeth in the queen’s seat next to Mohamed, turning out to be a lovely entertainer; also because they both hate polo. Towards the end of the season the Princess of Wales is seen – now divorced – about to go on vacation to the south of France, guest of Dodi (subject of the sixth season).
Khalid Abdalla describes the Mohamed-Diana picture as a magnificent scene: “I looked at them, I was almost jealous! Then there was a really weird moment, where Elizabeth he was looking at me. And I was like, “That’s it Elizabeth who plays Diana. He’s looking at me. What are you doing looking at me? ‘
iO Donna © REPRODUCTION RESERVED