Egyptian actor Yousef Shaaban played with competency his role in the series Hawari Wa Qusoor (Nymphs Palaces) as king Fuad 1 who ruled Egypt for 16 years. The series has recently been aired by a number of Arab TV channels.
“Fuad was a king with a point of view not to venture the Egyptian people and involve them in a war against world big powers including Britain. He had prior knowledge about the result of such fight and he loved the Egyptian patriots. While he was on the verge of death, he said that he respected Saad Zaghloul despite the differences between them,” Shaaban told the daily al Ahram adding that history should not have been fiddled with in any scene to favor Saad Zaghloul’s point of view to overshadow the king’s point of view.
“The series has been exposed to unfairness regarding the time of airing as there are many Egyptian generations who do not know about king Fuad. Everybody knows Farouq and the 1952 revolution and the series provided the opportunity particularly for the young generation to know much about that king,” added Shaaban.
Responding to a question about Fuad 1 speech problem as the series depicted, Shaaban said, “when young Fuad was a prince, he got aquatinted in Italy where he was raised to princess Shwikar who was elder than him. He married her and used to waste her many during a period when Egypt was facing economic troubles. This spurred Shwikar’s brother to shoot Fuad with a bullet that struck him in the throat. Doctors at that time failed to extract the whole bullet from the prince’s throat leaving his voice handicapped and resembling dog barking. All those who used to talk to him were warned against laughing or even showing that they noticed this defect,” said Shaaban adding that it was difficult for him to depict the Egyptian former king in that manner. So, Shaaban said, he substituted the deficiency in the king’s voice by stuttering which exhausted him during the performance of his role -- Albawaba.com
