When the staff at the Woking branch of Pizza Express clocked off for the night on the 16 November 2019, they could never have imagined that the world's media would be waiting for them the very next morning.
Two days prior, Emily Maitlis had walked into Buckingham Palace to film an extremely sought-after interview with Prince Andrew. The then-Newsnight anchor was there to interrogate the Duke of York about his long-running friendship with the late financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, as well as accusations of sexual assault posed by Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Epstein’s who was 17 at the time of the alleged incident (he denies the claims).
It was a high-wire act of journalism, spearheaded by Maitlis, Newsnight producer Sam McAlister and former editor Esme Wren, that would soon become the most talked-about story in the world; a scoop for the ages that rocked the British royal family to its core.
The fallout was remarkable and immediate, as Andrew's alibis became social media meme fodder. There was the aforementioned claim that he was eating pizza in Woking on the day of the alleged act; that her recollections of clammy dances in a Mayfair club were impossible, as he’d lost the ability to sweat while serving in the Falklands war – the result of an "adrenaline overdose". A few days later, the Duke of York issued a statement announcing that he was stepping back from public duties. He was stripped of various titles and hasn't been seen much since. In 2022, Prince Andrew settled a civil claim with Giuffre, with no admission of guilt.
The three journalists at the heart of the story were lauded for their work. McAlister even wrote a book about the process of securing the interview, which has now been adapted into a feature-length film, Scoop, set to reach Netflix this week.
The former Newsnight producer is played by Billie Piper, while Gillian Anderson is uncanny as the indomitable Emily Maitlis and Rufus Sewell bears a striking resemblance to the royal. Meanwhile, Amanda Thirsk, the former private secretary to Prince Andrew who left her position in 2020, is played by Keeley Hawes.
Ahead of the film’s release, we sat down with Piper, Anderson, Sewell and Hawes to discuss the anxieties they felt about the project, the experience of meeting their real-life counterparts and the hefty prosthetics involved. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Back Story
Esquire: Tell us about your initial reaction to the interview back in 2019.
Billie Piper: [I thought] 'How... how has this happened?' And then, 'I don't think I'll ever see anything like this again in my life'. The things he was saying seemed so abstract, so extraordinary and so misjudged.
Keeley Hawes: And in a world of PRs, and people, and machines...
Billie Piper: Exactly, how was this signed off?
Rufus Sewell: I heard about it, watched bits of it and then watched the whole thing and found it fascinating for so many different reasons. But anthropologically, it's very, very interesting.
Gillian Anderson: I did not watch it live. I was too nervous so I waited and then when I did watch it, it wasn't in the context of knowing that I was going to do this. Then, eventually, obviously I watched it many, many times.
How about when you were offered the part? Was it an easy yes?
Keeley Hawes: Yes. It was such a great script and the calibre of people. It was a no brainer really.
Billie Piper: It was for me, but when I first heard about it before I read the script I did think: how is this going to work? Why would anyone care? We all know the outcome, so what is the film building towards? Something we've already seen and has been memed to fuck? Then very quickly I realised, Oh, okay, this is about the unsung, tenacious journalists behind getting it on air.
Keeley Hawes: It's not a film about Prince Andrew.
Billie Piper: And it's worth saying, it's not a film about the victims. It's more focused on the four women who got it.
Keeley Hawes: I think if you’re going to make films in this vein they have to be either about the victims or about the people that have been striving for justice on their behalf.
Rufus Sewell: I got an email from my agent mentioning that they were interested in me for it and I just thought, God, how fascinating. It was a thrill of being offered a really interesting character role that was scary and challenging. The offer reminded me of the kind of things that I used to get more chance to do, which is stuff that doesn't on paper look so much like me or what people would imagine would be my forte. It was exciting to have a chance to do something that I really felt that I could do, with work. Then, of course, I said yes and thought, Jesus Christ, what have I just said yes to? When I say I [knew I] could do it... that doesn't mean that failure is not possible. In any role where you go all out, there's always the chance that you will miss.
I worked on it for a while before I said yes. I would put my hair down, wipe my eyebrows out with a bit of powder and pad myself just to try to make myself believe myself. Certain people thought I shouldn't touch it with a barge pole.
Gillian Anderson: I was determined not to do it. I said no way, it's just too scary. Then the director [Philip Martin] and writer [Peter Moffat] said: 'Well, that actually means you have to, because if it's that terrifying then you have to jump right in with both feet.'
I knew that was the case. I just didn't want to hear it. I've played historical figures before but I've never played somebody who's still alive and very much in our consciousness here in the UK. Her podcast is listened to internationally. People know who she is, not least how prevalent she's been on our screens at the BBC for a very long time. She also does so many other things, interviews people while she's running and a lot of people know her for that aspect of her life, the fact that she runs, swims, is very fit and is a superwoman, so to speak. That reputation precedes her. I am not a runner, I am not a swimmer.
What was the most surprising thing you learned about the interview from reading Sam's story?
Billie Piper: I didn't know that Princess Beatrice was there [in the final negotiations prior to the interview]. That was all really interesting. Then the inner workings of the BBC and the struggles there. It's like ping-ponging between two huge British institutions. You were very aware of Britain. It kind of stank of Britain.
Rufus Sewell: I did not have any idea that he was so cock-a-hoop at the end of it... and the idea that they regarded the interview as a potential silver bullet. I mean, it's evidence of upbringing and environment and that's one of the things that makes watching it so fascinating – the interview that is, the relationship with a person like that... his personality, as such, is a contract which does not work when the princely awe is removed. He's never been in that experience before and one could be forgiven for thinking that reactions that you get from the people around you from the moment you're born are because of your personality. They’re not and that's why one could see this creature out of its natural environment thinking he was going to take a big breath of air but getting its lungs clogged with something else.
Gillian Anderson: What was new to me was the fact that Buckingham Palace, post-interview, thought that it was a success, hence the tour through the halls of Buckingham Palace afterwards [between Prince Andrew and Emily Maitlis]. We all saw those pictures but it's quite extraordinary, also thinking about Emily in that situation, knowing what she's just witnessed and participated in making happen and still keeping a straight face, being polite through a very long tour through the rooms of the palace. It's an extraordinary thing.
Preparation and filming
Have you met your real-life counterparts?
Gillian Anderson: Not in the making of Scoop. She and her team have been working on a project for some time based on her book [Maitlis is an executive producer on an upcoming A Very British Scandal series about the interview where Michael Sheen will reportedly play Prince Andrew and Ruth Wilson, Maitlis] and she had said that she'd rather not just for the sake of wanting to honour the people that she was working with, which I completely understood. But we very briefly met after we'd already started filming at a charity event and had a picture taken, which is quite hilarious because she very much looks like the Hollywood actress and I look like I might be some lonely journalist who's got no make-up on, not prepared at all for the cameras. Anyway, it's very funny.
Billie Piper: Sam is unlike other journalists I've met. I can imagine the struggle she may have had at the BBC because she is quite other in a wonderful way. She's formidable. Her backstory is not unlike mine in many ways in terms of our backgrounds. I mean, she went off to law school, that obviously didn't happen for me but we have similar families and things. I really connected with her over those and other things that are slightly more personal.
Keeley Hawes: No, I didn't. I did ask. I mean, just selfishly I think it would have been lovely to have sat down with her and it would be nice to have someone's blessing, always, because it's a very tricky thing to play real living people. So really, it was mostly Sam who I talked to about her and Sam spoke very highly of Amanda. I don't think that this film feels like it's kind of out to get anybody, it feels very tasteful and I think because of Sam's involvement it's not a hatchet job. Even as far as Prince Andrew, it's told very fairly.
Rufus Sewell: I grilled Sam as much as possible, but just to feel her support was very, very important because it's quite frightening to do that [play the role of Andrew] for the first time in front of someone who was there.
What was your reaction to seeing yourself and other actors in-character for the first time?
Gillian Anderson: I was surprised how little was necessary to make [me as Emily] work. There were three things and suddenly Emily was in front of me, it was the right wig, the right tone of tan and the black Kohl eyeliner on top and bottom. They transformed me.
Billie Piper: When I’d heard they’d cast Rufus as Prince Andrew I thought, That doesn't make any sense. Then I got really worried because it's really hard to pull off such huge transformations in drama. I thought, Fuck, the responsibility of the make-up team is so great in this one. Then the first time I saw him I thought: this is perfect.
Keeley Hawes. I sat next to him a couple of times at different stages of the make-up process and test period for the prosthetics. It's quite alarming.
Rufus Sewell: When the hair went on top, it came together and was kind of astonishing. My biggest concern was to just be left alone with it so it could feel like my face. The make-up team were extraordinary. Very early on they did something with my eyes – a lid on top of my eyes that made me look uncannily like him, but we couldn't use those because I couldn't express with my eyes. I couldn't open them fully if I blinked. They'd stick and it became apparent that to actually have full channel of whatever I was doing unimpeded, even if it made me look less like him, was better.
One day of filming, I was doing photos with extras for the walls of the Buckingham Palace set and I was talking to this guy and he said, 'So how long have you been in the game? Maybe we've worked together, but I don't recognise you?' And I said, Well, I don't always look like this. He said, 'What do you mean?' I said, No, this isn’t my face. Passing for someone who doesn't just have latex all over their face, that really was a very useful moment for me. I was trying to explain which parts of my face weren't mine to the extras and one of them said 'Oh, yeah, you've done something around your chin, haven't you?' I've done more than that, love!
Scoop is on Netflix from the 5 April.
