NINE YEARS AFTER Prince Andrew was photographed in New York with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the royal joined Newsnight in 2019 for a 'car crash' interview of epic proportions.
In Scoop, Netflix brings to the screen the story behind the interview, with exceptional lead performances that mirror the awkward tension of the original Newsnight interview.
Rufus Sewell plays Andrew, while Gillian Anderson is BBC journalist Emily Maitlis, who challenges him on his dubious connections with child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell as well as Epstein - whom the prince continued to visit despite Epstein's first conviction. It's a masterful pairing that sees Sewell and Anderson recreate in unnerving detail the interview that would see the prince step down from Royal duties.
You and Gillian Anderson inhabit your roles so powerfully. What were your thoughts when you were first offered the role?
For me, this was a chance to do the kind of thing that actually maybe people don't know that I can. And so, I said yes. Then I had a few months to think, 'What the fuck have I just said yes to,' because I sat down to look at the interview again, which I remembered watching at the time, and realised that though I felt I knew how I could inhabit it, it wasn't going to do itself. I had to do a lot of work to look like Andrew, sound like him and get behind the thoughts and gestures, from my perspective. It could only ever be my perspective.
I obsessed about the interview, and I worked on it and worked on it. I would physically disguise myself even to work on it on my own, so I could suspend disbelief about myself. I'd dull down my eyebrows and grease my hair and I'd pad myself out, and just walk around in the shape of it. Slowly, it started to get closer and closer to something that felt right. And I did that work for a very, very long time.
This story is from the April/May 2024 edition of Rolling Stone UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the April/May 2024 edition of Rolling Stone UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Suitors and ties
Bridgerton's newest beau Victor Alli on joining the hit Netflix adaptation as the third season begins
Fran Healy
Travis’s lead singer on living in Los Angeles — the inspiration behind the band’s forthcoming album L.A. Times — streetfights with strangers and the unifying power of music
THE GREAT GADSBY
Comedy's enfant terrible Hannah Gadsby is relishing their anti-hero era
"I HAD TO GET OUT OF THIS DOOM HOLE"
After breaking every record imaginable with mega-hit 'Heat Waves', Glass Animals' Dave Bayley came back down to earth with a bump. Fourth album I Love You So F***ing Much sees him sift through the existential wreckage and focus on the fundamentals
SHABAKA'S NEW CALLING
“If I was still playing the sax, it’d be so easy,” the former Sons of Kemet and The Comet is Coming bandleader Shabaka Hutchings admits. On stunning debut album Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, he turns to the flute and follows a spiritual compulsion to take a new path
GROWING PAINS AND HAPPY ENDINGS
OPENING HER HEART IN HER MUSIC HAS HELPED NELL MESCAL BUILD A DEDICATED FANBASE, BUT THERE'S PLENTY OF ROOM FOR HOPE TOO, THE 21-YEAR-OLD REVEALS, AS SHE RELEASES HER DEBUT EP
Star Rising
Currently starring in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Freya Allan broke through playing a princess in TV series The Witcher. But this 22-year-old has her feet firmly on the ground as she sets her sights on the future
The new Doctor Who is in!
How Ncuti Gatwa went from TV queer idol to making history on the iconic sci-fi show
Toni Sancho's manifesto of hope
The London-viaTrinidad singer discusses the power of music in helping her move past depression and uplift others
Making it up as they go along
Yeti funerals, big-name producers and a fiercely DIY ethic: we meet Mary in the Junkyard, the band making some of the best new rock music in the UK right now