‘Naomi is brilliant as Diana … you can’t tell the difference between the two of them’

 
5 September 2013

The writer of the controversial new film about Princess Diana defended it today, claiming it holds “a poetic dramatic truth”.

Heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, whose relationship with Diana is featured in the movie, has slammed it as “completely wrong” and “based on gossip”.

But Stephen Jeffreys said he believed his portrait of the princess in her final two years came as close as possible to representing the real Diana.

Speaking as the film, Diana, premieres in London tonight, he said there was a “poetic dramatic truth rather than a journalistic truth” to it.

Naomi Watts, who stars as the princess, has said she “might have to leave the country” when the film is released and apparently walked out of a BBC Radio interview with Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode under questioning.

But Jeffreys said the Australian was uncannily like Diana in many scenes — particularly in the recreation of her infamous 1995 interview with Martin Bashir, which eventually led to divorce from Prince Charles.

Watts wears a prosthetic nose and worked with Penny Dyer, Helen Mirren’s voice coach for The Queen, to prepare.

Jeffreys said: “In the Bashir interview, Naomi is brilliant. You can’t tell the difference between the two of them.”

He said he hopes Dr Khan, played by Lost star Naveen Andrews, will change his mind once he sees the film, which is out on general release from September 20. However, the surgeon, 54, declined producers’ invitations to be involved.

Jeffreys, best known as a playwright, said: “I would like him to like it. I would like him to see it is a positive depiction of both of them.”

There were clearly many different Dianas, he added.

“I read something like 20 books and even on basic events no one could agree what happened. I don’t think it’s possible to arrive at ‘the truth’,” he said.

Jeffreys met Diana at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 1989, when he was named most promising playwright for Valued Friends, about a group of friends in Earls Court — where Diana lived before her marriage.

“The meeting was a guiding light. I found her very quick and intelligent and fascinating,” he said. Diana told him she missed her friends at the Coleherne gay pub, added Jeffreys.

“It was intriguing. She was just really interested in all areas of life,” he said. The film has already been plagued by attacks, despite a crack British cast including Douglas Hodge, Geraldine James and Juliet Stevenson, and an award-winning director in Oliver Hirschbiegel, who was behind war film Downfall, about Hitler.

A defiant Jeffreys, who lives in Muswell Hill, said: “Everyone will have their own axes to grind — but I feel what we have done is come up with a film that is somewhere between art house and a popular movie.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in