Gillian Anderson has revealed she initially turned down the role of Emily Maitlis in Netflix’s Scoop.
The famous actress plays the Newsnight host in the anticipated film which dramatizes the famous 2019 interview between Prince Andrew and Emily.
But Gillian admitted it took a while to convince her to take the role, insisting “it was just too scary to play Emily Maitlis because she’s still alive.”
“She’s so amazing, because people know her so well,” she explained in a new BBC interview.
Gillian Anderson has revealed that she initially turned down the role of Emily Maitlis in the Netflix film Scoop (pictured in the film as Maitliss).
The famous actress plays the Newsnight host (right) in the highly anticipated film which dramatizes the famous 2019 interview between Prince Andrew and Emily.
The actress admitted that her fear encouraged her to say yes to the project. “I thought I should probably do it because I’m so scared of it,” pointed out.
Gillian ended up meeting “amazing” Emily at a party last year and she admitted: “I acted around her like I knew her. Like we were best friends.
Although Emily knew Gillian was playing her in the Netflix film, she did not consult on the film because she is an executive producer on a rival three-part Amazon series called A Very Royal Scandal, which will star Ruth Wilson of Luther as Maitlis and Michael Sheen as Prince Andrew.
Rufus Sewell plays Prince Andrew in Scoop, based on the memoir of former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister, who secured the royal interview.
McAlister plays Billie Piper in the drama.
The full trailer for Netflix drama Scoop was revealed on Monday with a notable moment in the trailer coming from Billie trying to convince the prince to speak to the BBC about his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Sam probes: ‘With respect, you know how people see you. As the late queen’s third child watches blankly, he muses, “Spell it,” prompting Sam to blurt out, “Randy Andy…”
Keeley Hawes also stars in the film as Amanda Thirsk, Prince Andrew’s private secretary.
Gillian admitted it took a while to convince her to take the role, insisting “it was just too scary to play Emily Maitlis, because she’s still alive.”
The actress admitted that her fear encouraged her to say yes to the project. “I thought I should probably do it because I’m so scared of it,” pointed out
In the infamous 2019 interview, Emily addressed Virginia Giuffre’s claims that she was forced to have sex with Andrew on three occasions when she was 17 under Epstein’s orders.
The prince strongly denied these claims throughout the interview.
The discussion, during which Andrew made a series of claims – including insisting he could not have been with Virginia at the time of the alleged encounter because he was dining at a Pizza Express in Woking and that a health problem prevented him from sweating – has since gained notoriety and is widely credited with embarrassing the royal family.
The interview was described as a “car crash” and on November 20, 2019, a statement from Buckingham Palace said that Prince Andrew had been suspended from public duties “for the foreseeable future.”
In May 2020, it was announced that the prince was permanently retiring from public duties.
In January 2022, Virginia received the green light to sue Andrew for unspecified damages in New York civil court.
Rufus Sewell (left) plays the Duke of York
Billie Piper (left) plays producer Sam McAlister
Keeley Hawes (left) plays Prince Andrew’s former personal secretary, Amanda Thirsk.
Despite promising to fight the allegations and repeatedly protesting his innocence, the prince agreed to pay a huge sum to settle the case before it reached a jury. the interview, then the film.
Netflix describes the production as depicting: “The inside trail of the women who broke through the Buckingham Palace establishment to get the inside scoop on the decade that led to the catastrophic fall from grace of the Queen’s ‘favorite son.’
“From dealing with Palace vetoes, to breaking into Prince Andrew’s inner circle, to the high-stakes negotiations and the intensity of rehearsals – all the way to the jaw-dropping interview itself.
“SCOOP is the insider account of the inner workings of the Palace and the BBC, twin bastions of the British establishment, spotlighting the journalists whose tenacity and courage have broken through to the highest ceilings – and into the inner sanctum and reckoning of a man with everything to lose.’