In 2017, the year Scott auditioned, 70.7 per cent of the top film roles in Hollywood were white. True, we’re not talking The Vagina Monologues – this is the Disney juggernaut, after all – but when you think of the millions of little girls (and boys) who make up Disney’s target audience, the message that there’s more to life than marrying a prince – flying carpets, pet tigers and becoming a sultan, for a start – had a powerful reach. After beating thousands of hopefuls, the Indian-British actor negotiated the film’s fairy-tale tropes with none of the queasy belly-dancing seductions of 1992’s animated version, playing a grown-up princess less interested in finding a husband than wielding her political voice. The 26-year-old has been on set since her teens, but it was the audition for Aladdin that landed her on giant billboards along Sunset. She’s the Disney princess who knows the offside rule and cheerfully chats to journalists about her eczema, the actor who’s never set foot in an acting class (unless you count the school play), and the Hollywood protégé who has made her home thousands of miles from Tinseltown. In the flesh, she prefers a tracksuit to glittery organza and ribbon accessories it’s part of her considerable charm that she can hit the red carpet in a bubblegum-pink gown the length of a city block one week and be serving tea in a hoodie at the Woodford panto the next. On the shelves of toy shops across the world, 30cm-high replicas of Naomi Scott are rubbing tiny plastic shoulders with Ariel and Barbie, thanks to the actor’s empowered take on Princess Jasmine in Aladdin this year.
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