The Real Princess Grace – The Actress Nicole Kidman
Don’t Blame Nicole Kidman for GRACE OF MONACO
“When I first heard that Nicole Kidman would be playing Princess Grace, I was thrilled to think that the Oscar-winning actress would do justice to her memory,” said Princess Grace’s goddaughter, Grace Dale. “From what I have seen, Grace of Monaco promises to be visually stunning, with beautiful costumes, exquisite jewels, and magnificent scenery harkening back to a magical time. However, most of the script is pure fiction although it is based on historic events, many of which were actually centered around my parents’ close relationship with Princess Grace and Prince Rainier. This movie is definitely not a biopic depicting the true story of Princess Grace.”
According to Nicole Kidman: “It’s not meant to be a biopic. I certainly did my best to honor everything that was real and truthful in it.” But people tend to believe what they see in movies, despite the fact that the director of Grace of Monaco, Oliver Dahan, has also repeatedly said “I am not a journalist or historian. I am an artist. I have not made a biopic. I hate biopics in general.” Dahan also admitted that some scenes in the film are indeed pure fiction: “Of course there are historical inaccuracies. General de Gaulle never set foot at the Red Cross Ball, but I need this stage to tell my story.” He may be telling his story, but it is definitely not history…
“The real story of what happened in Monaco during the 1962 crisis is far more dramatic than the fictionalized drama in the film,” says Dale, who is considering publishing her mother’s memoirs of her close 25-year friendship with Princess Grace. Joan Dale met Princess Grace the year after her fairy-tale wedding to Prince Rainier, and was with Grace on her last family vacation the month before her tragic death. Joan’s husband, Martin Dale, was Prince Rainier’s closest advisor during the period depicted in the film, and his success with the economic expansion of Monaco was a major cause of the crisis with France. During that time, Joan Dale was asked to be Princess Grace’s Lady-in-Waiting, replacing Madge Tivey-Faucon, but the furor over the “Americans” made this impossible.
The new book, “My Days with Princess Grace of Monaco” offers an eyewitness account of what really happened in the events loosely depicted in the film, and is also the behind-the-scenes story of what Princess Grace’s life and relationships were really like from the first years of her marriage to the last days of her life. The preview of the book is available exclusively through www.PrincessGraceofMonaco.com while the movie is in theatres worldwide. “The original script for Grace of Monaco does a disservice to the memory of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier, perpetuating myths and untruths about them. I feel compelled to publish my mother’s memoirs, ‘My Days with Princess Grace of Monaco’ so people can get to know the real Princess Grace as my mother knew her, and set the record straight.”
According to Dale, the problems with the Grace of Monaco film should not be blamed on Nicole Kidman. “Having been an actress herself, I believe that Princess Grace would have had tremendous empathy for Nicole Kidman taking on such an iconic and difficult role, with the awareness that the job of an actress is to follow the script and the direction given to her – the final result being very much at the mercy of the director’s vision.”
