Elizabeth Debicki thanked The Crown writer Peter Morgan from the stage of the Emmy’s when she won for her portrayal of Princess Diana earlier this month.
But actually Morgan owes a debt of gratitude to the actress, 34, as she’s saved him from even worse embarrassment over the programme’s portrayal of Mohamed Al Fayed.
In series six of The Crown, Morgan showed the Harrods boss – already by that point the subject of numerous complaints over sexual abuse – as a kindly, even fatherly figure for the Princess.
A number of the women who took part in the BBC’s exposé of rapes and assault – titled Al Fayed: Predator At Harrods – said they decided to speak out over anger at how he was portrayed in the Netflix show.
But, due to Debicki’s performance being so good in the series, it forced him to re-think the entire story.
The Crown writer Peter Morgan owes a debt of gratitude to actress Elizabeth Debicki
Debicki won an Emmy award for her portrayal of Princess Diana earlier this month
In series six of The Crown, Morgan showed the Harrods boss Mohamed Al-Fayed as a kindly, even fatherly figure for the Princess
He said earlier this year: ‘If it hadn’t been for finding Elizabeth Debicki, I’m not sure I would’ve told the story through Diana.
‘I might have done it through the Al Fayeds because I thought that seeing it from [the point of view of] an outsider, racially, as it were, discriminated against, would feel more contemporary.
‘But then, of course, Elizabeth Debicki showed up. So, in the end, I chose to do it as a mixture through the eyes of the Al Fayeds and Diana.’
Debicki’s performance saved Morgan from centering the series on a man who is currently at the centre of allegations over years of sexual misconduct.
Morgan, Netflix and Left Bank Pictures are all refusing to comment on Al Fayed and his portrayal.
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