Actor Gillian Anderson shares details about her new Netflix film “Scoop” about BBC broadcaster Emily Maitlis’ consequential interview with Prince Andrew over his connection to Jeffrey Epstein.
Anderson speaks out on “X Files” reboot rumors and whether she’d be in it. “I’m not saying no,” she teases.
Netflix is recounting the story of the women who worked to make the bombshell interview happen in a new film called Scoop.
Directed by Philip Martin and starring Gillian Anderson, Rufus Sewell, Billie Piper, Romola Garai and Keeley Hawes, it documents the tireless negotiations, research and preparations leading up to the eye-opening interview.
I read that you initially avoided watching the Newsnight interview because you heard it was such a car crash. When did you finally get around to watching it?
I actually can’t remember whether I watched it within a certain period of it airing, or whether it was after I’d agreed to do Scoop.
Once I’d signed on, I thought, “Right, I’ve seen clips but I actually need to commit some time to watching it.” And when I did… the conversation they have, it feels like the two of them are almost speaking two different languages? There’s such a disconnect.
And it makes you ask questions like: why would someone put themselves in that position? How did that even happen? And that’s what our film is about – it’s about the women who were involved in making this happen.
I know you turned down the role at first, because it felt too tricky. What made you change your mind?
It was the script. I didn’t want to turn it down because I liked the script so much, but at the same time, it felt like, why subject myself to potential punishment? [laughs] But then, I was zooming with Peter Moffat, the writer, and Philip Martin, the director, and I was giving them all the reasons why I shouldn’t do it.
And they said, “Well, you know that means you have to do it, right? Because it’s so potentially scary.”