“The phrase I return to is that it’s not our job to answer questions, but it’s our job to ask them as intensely as possible,” Abdalla told E! of their dynamic in The Crown. “He clearly had a complicated relationship with his father, but it was very important to me that that relationship was presented lovingly. Many of us have complicated relationships with our families.”
Likewise with Dodi and Diana’s relationship, he continued, “I had this big question, which is not really just about them, it’s about the way that we all love. It’s complicated, it’s messy, and it’s tender and it’s beautiful—it’s all sorts of things.”
Abdalla zeroed in on the seven minutes of CCTV footage captured of the couple before they left the Ritz for the last time, purposefully going out a back entrance in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to avoid the horde of paparazzi waiting for them in front of the hotel.
“They’re nuzzled together and holding each other’s hands behind their back and there’s such tenderness there,” Abdalla reflected. “And that’s the thing, right? You explore. What I was more fascinated by was, rather than the famous image of the kiss, was actually the images of them where his hand is on [her cheek] like this, and hers is on him like this, and it’s finding these details which are so precious. They allow everyone to be humanized.”