Aladdin 's Naomi Scott Says Princess Jasmine Is ‘Fighting Injustice': 'My Girl’s a Politician'
It’s a whole new world for Jasmine!
Naomi Scott, who stars as the princess of Agrabah in the new live-action version of Disney’s Aladdin, says her character wants to make even more of a statement this time around.
“For me that was the main difference was she’s fighting for the injustice of her people,” Scott, 26, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “My girl’s a politician, do you know what I mean? She’s not just there to look pretty.”
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While even in the 1992 animated film Jasmine was resistant to marrying a suitor of her father’s choosing, Scott says that in the 2019 take, “We’ve made her even more ambitious.”
“We’ve done is broadened her horizons,” the Ugandan-British actress says. “We took the kind of foundations of what was there from the iconic animation version where she was fighting for her own choice to marry, but now she’s fighting for the choice of others which I think is way more powerful and her objective at the beginning of the movie is to lead.”
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But that doesn’t mean the new movie loses Aladdin (played by Mena Massoud) and Jasmine’s sweet love story. “She does fall head over heels in love with Aladdin,” Scott assures. “And he represents this kind of freedom that she longs for, and I think that through meeting him, that’s what also gives her confidence as well to speak out.”
Aladdin, also starring Will Smith as Genie, opens on Friday.
