Gillian Anderson reveals why she turned down the role of Emily Maitlis in the Netflix film Scoop

Gillian Anderson has revealed she initially turned down the role of Emily Maitlis in Netflix film Scoop.

The acclaimed actress will play the Newsnight presenter in the anticipated film which dramatizes the infamous 2019 interview between Prince Andrew and Emily.

But Gillian has admitted it took some persuading to take on the role, insisting it was ‘just too scary to play Emily Maitlis because she’s still alive.’

“She’s so formidable because people know her so well,” she explained in a new one BBC interview.

The acclaimed actress will play the Newsnight presenter (right) in the anticipated film which dramatizes the infamous 2019 interview between Prince Andrew and Emily

The actress admitted that her fear pushed her to say yes to the project. “I thought I probably should do it because I’m so scared of it,” I commented.

Gillian met ‘amazing’ Emily at a party last year and she admitted: ‘I behaved towards her as if I knew her. Like we’re best friends.’

Whiule Emily knew Gillian played her in the Netflix movie. She did not consult on the film because she serves as executive producer on a rival three-part Amazon series titled A Very Royal Scandal, which will star Luther’s Ruth Wilson as Maitlis and Michael Sheen as Prince Andrew.

Rufus Sewell stars as Prince Andrew in Scoop, based on the memoirs 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 unveiled on Monday with a standout moment in the trailer comes from Billie trying encourage the prince to talk to the BBC about his friendship with convicted 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 out,” prompting Sam to blurt out “Randy Andy…”.

Keeley Hawes also stars in the film as Prince Andrew’s private secretary, Amanda Thirsk.

Gillian has admitted that it took some persuading to take on the role, insisting that it was ‘just too scary to play Emily Maitlis because she’s still alive’.

The actress admitted that her fear pushed her to say yes to the project. “I thought I probably should do it because I’m so scared of it,” I commented

In the infamous 2019 interview, Emily discussed Virginia Giuffre’s claims that she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times when she was 17 on Epstein’s orders.

The prince strongly denied the claims during the interview.

The discussion, in which Andrew made a series of claims – including claiming that he could not have been with Virginia at the time of the alleged meeting because he was dining at a Pizza Express in Woking and that a medical condition prevented him from sweating – has since gained notoriety and is widely acknowledged to have embarrassed the royal family.

The interview was described as a ‘car crash’ and on November 20, 2019, a statement from Buckingham Palace said Prince Andrew had been suspended from public duties ‘for the foreseeable future’.

In May 2020, it was announced that the prince was permanently resigning from his public positions.

In January 2022, Virginia was given the green light to sue Andrew for unspecified damages in a civil court in New York.

Rufus Sewell (left) plays The Duke Of York

Billie Piper (left) plays producer Sam McAlister

Keeley Hawes (left) stars as Amanda Thirsk, Prince Andrew’s former personal secretary

Despite promising to fight the claims and repeatedly protesting his innocence, the prince agreed to pay a huge sum to settle the case before it ever reached a jury. interview and then the film.

Netflix describes the production as follows: ‘The inside track of the women who broke through the Buckingham Palace establishment to secure the scoop of the decade that led to the catastrophic fall from grace of the Queen’s ‘Favorite Son’ .

‘From navigating vetoes at the Palace, to breaking Prince Andrew’s inner circle, the high-stakes negotiations and the intensity of the rehearsal – to the breathtaking interview itself.

‘SCOOP is the insider’s account of the inner workings of the Palace and the BBC, two bastions of the British establishment, spotlighting the journalists whose tenacity and courage broke through the highest ceilings – and into the inner sanctum and calculations of one man with losing everything.”