Prince Andrew Netflix star given prosthetics to look 'less handsome' for role
Rufus Sewell is to play Prince Andrew in a drama based on the disgraced royal’s car crash interview on Newsnight with Emily Maitlis.
But the 55-year-old heart-throb will be made to look less handsome than the Duke, 62, with facial prosthetics.
Gillian Anderson is to play Maitlis, who grilled Andrew in November 2019 over his relationship with late billionaire and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Called Scoop, the Netflix movie will look at “navigating Palace vetoes, to breaking through to Prince Andrew’s inner circle, the high-stakes negotiations and intensity of rehearsal, to the jaw-dropping interview itself”.
Director Philip Martin, who also works on The Crown, said: “Uptempo, immersive and cinematic, I want to put the audience inside the breathtaking sequence of events that led to the interview with Prince Andrew.
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Prince Andrew in his BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis (BBC)“To tell a story about a search for answers, in a world of speculation and varying recollections. It’s a film about power, privilege and differing perspectives and how, whether in glittering palaces or hi-tech newsrooms, we judge what’s true.”
In the BBC chat, the Duke denied claims he had sex with Virginia Giuffre who accused Epstein of trafficking her.
He sparked furore after the Duke told Maitlis he was at a Pizza Express in Woking, Surrey, on one of the occasions Giuffre alleged he was with her when she was 17.
Actor Rufus Sewell is to play Prince Andrew (FilmMagic)Andrew also hit back at her claims he sweated heavily as they danced at London nightclub Tramp in one alleged encounter.
He told Maitlis that at the time he had a medical condition caused by his service in the Falklands War, which left him unable to sweat.
The Duke also insisted he had no recollection of ever meeting Ms Giuffre.
The new film is based on former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister’s memoir Scoops: Behind The Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews.
Gillian Anderson will play Emily Maitlis (Getty Images)
While Billie Piper will portray Sam McAlister (Dave Benett/Getty Images)It will highlight “the inside track of the women that broke through the Buckingham Palace establishment to secure the scoop of the decade … and the journalists whose tenacity and guts broke through the highest of ceilings”.
Billie Piper is cast as McAlister.
The writer said the Doctor Who star is one of her favourite actors and she will have a “pinch-myself” moment watching her in the role. Keeley Hawes, who starred in It’s A Sin and recently Stonehouse, plays the Duke’s former private secretary Amanda Thirsk.
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The Newsnight interview, watched by a programme record 1.7 million viewers, won the Scoop of the Year at the Royal Television Society Awards in 2020.
Andrew’s appearance was meant to dispel the outcry surrounding his relationship with Epstein.
But it was branded “disastrous” and “excruciating” after it was shown.
Last year, Andrew settled his sexual assault case in the United States with Ms Giuffre out of court.
The agreement was not an admission of guilt and he has always strenuously denied the allegations against him.
Keeley Hawes the Duke’s former private secretary Amanda ThirskMs Giuffre claims she was trafficked in America by Epstein on three separate occasions, including when she was 17, still a minor under US law.
The perverted tycoon died in August 2019 while in prison awaiting trial.
Maitlis, who joined the BBC in 2001, presented Newsnight from 2006 until last year when she left the broadcaster for rival media group Global.
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