'Scoop' stars talk about filming the controversial 2019 Prince Andrew interview

Getting a scoop is always the fuel that ignites the fire in a journalist's life – whether they admit it or not.

One of the biggest scoops in 2019 was when Newsnight editor Sam McAlister and journalist Emily Maitlis managed to get Prince Andrew to sit down for an exclusive interview with the BBC team to talk about his controversial relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Adapted from the 2022 book, "Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC's Most Shocking Interviews" by former Newsnight editor Sam McAlister, the British biographical drama "Scoop" helmed by Philip Martin stars Gillian Anderson (Emily Maitlis), Billie Piper (Sam McAlister), Keeley Hawes (Amanda Thirsk) and Rufus Sewell (Prince Andrew).

In a virtual press conference with Anderson, Piper and McAlister herself, the women talked about filming the said "scoop of the decade."

The Prince Andrew interview was such an event, not only in the UK but there were repercussions all over the world. Do you remember seeing or hearing the interview when it happened?

Billie Piper (BA): I didn't see it live. I saw it a couple of days later when it had been widely reported on, and then continued to see variations of it forever more.

Gillian Anderson (GA): I didn't see it at the time, either. I was too nervous to watch it because it was clear that it was cringeworthy. I don't know whether I just wasn't in the mood for cringe, but eventually, I caught up with it and then, obviously, studied it intensely for the role in preparation. So, I know it very well.

Sam McAlister (SM): I saw it in the room on the day, which I think is an altogether different experience, for sure.

What is that like, and did you know at the time there was a story not only happening, but the story behind the landing of the interview?

SM: I'd spent 13 months dealing with the palace. And over the period of those 13 months, Prince Andrew's story had gone from effectively forgotten prince to problem prince to the biggest story in the world. And to culminate in sitting 15 feet behind him in the South Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace, listening to those cataclysmic answers, it was the most extraordinary experience as a human, but as a journalist, it was just mind-blowing.

And Sam, what made you want to write the book, and what did you learn from your journey from writing the book to the filming of "Scoop?"

SM: To be honest with you, I just wanted people, and I thought it would basically be my mom, like three of my friends, to know what actually happened because the question I get asked the most is how did this happen? And in our movie, we see the 5% culmination of this incredible interview that traveled the world. But 95% before that, I wanted to answer that question that people ask me relentlessly, how did it begin? What did you do? What did you say? How did you convince him?

And our movie is, obviously, the story of that, and my small ambition was to write a book to tell that story to the 10 people who were going to read it. I never imagined for one millisecond that it would end up on Netflix with these two incredible actresses working with me.

Billie, how challenging was it to play Sam?

BP: It's challenging playing anybody. Playing Sam is a gift for me as an actor. As a person, but on a professional note, it's rare that you meet people who are so impressive, with such an enormous skillset, but also incredible quirks. And there's just so much to take as an actor.

Fortunately, because I suppose unlike Gillian and Rufus, I didn't have the pressure of playing something that was terribly public facing, although that's all about to change. I was able to take bits that I thought I could enjoy and relish and would help the story, and then find my own way to land the story beat. So, in many ways, I had the best of both worlds.

Did you get to meet each other before you started preparing, or did you start with an idea of what you wanted and then she came in and you were either like, "Yeah, I nailed it," or, "Whoa, I got that all wrong."

BP:  Oh, no. We met really early on.

As soon as I met with Philip, our director, and the writer, Peter, I met with Sam, a week later. That was a really big part of the picture for me. We had a great night.

Gillian, is there any particular TV anchor, or maybe more than one, that you looked at to base your performance on?

GA: It was just pretty much looking to and looking at Emily. Properly studying her, watching everything that I could, reading her book, listening to her reading her audiobook.

Obviously, also studying in depth the interview and breaking it down into both a video file and an audio file so that I could watch or listen to them on a loop. It was a singular person that I was playing, and it had more than anything to do with her personality, her quirks, how she gestures, how she tilts her head, how she walks, how she stands, all that kind of stuff.

Gillian, can you please talk about shooting the interview scene with Prince Andrew? Was it shot in one day or over the course of several days? Did you rehearse this scene? We heard it was one of the first scenes you shot with Rufus Sewell.

GA: It was Rufus' first day. We had been working for a couple weeks. It was his first day of filming, and we both walked into the set, which was a pretty accurate verbatim recreation of the South Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, and it was a massive, massive room.

The chairs were set up six feet apart. There were all the cameras that were there filming the interview on the day plus our cameras, and they were all going to be used to shoot simultaneously. The idea was that we were going to film it from beginning to end. Our interview was about 20 minutes of the 50-minute interview, bits taken from the interview from beginning to end.

We walked in, we sat down, we'd never rehearsed it. Philip, the director, said, "Do you want to give it a go?"  And we did, so we said yes, and we got mic'd up, and, in our positions, our legs crossed in the right way and yadda yadda, and it began. He called action.

How many takes do you estimate you did?

GA: That was one take. That was the 20-minute interview in a take. Then we tried it again and again for the rest of the day.

Sometimes we got all the way through it without asking for a line, and sometimes we didn't. Or sometimes we'd get part way through it, and they had everything they needed, so they changed angle, and we probably did a day and a little bit the next day. I can't remember what we did the next day.

So, when you walk in, Rufus is already in hair and makeup? It's uncanny. Did it throw you for a second?

GA: Yeah, it did. I'd seen him go through the process a little bit in the hair and makeup trailer.

I'd seen him go through the process a little bit in her makeup trailer. I'd witnessed the process and saw him for the camera test. What was really, really uncanny was once we started the interview and hearing him, I'd asked him a question as Emily Maitlis and hearing him answer as Prince Andrew, and his answer was uncanny how accurate it was.  Everything about it, every last detail. The biggest challenge was staying focused on responding as Emily rather than responding as Gillian going, "Oh my God, that's amazing."

SM: It was crazy to be watching that as well as you can imagine having been there the first time, and I wasn't breathing because obviously as you've seen, the performances are spell binding. I hadn't seen Rufus either until he walked in as Prince Andrew. It was like being there on the day because Emily and Andrew sat down opposite one another. I didn't breathe through most of the work that Gillian and Rufus were doing, which is quite hard. It was such a long period because it was so mesmerizing, so scintillating and like being there all over again.

I thought he might give different answers this time, but unfortunately for him he didn't. But it was like being there and full credit for the incredible performances, but also for the team on the film, putting together that incredible room that I felt I was there all over again, exactly the same.

Billie, I don't know how much you even have to act in that scene if you're there present watching it.

BP: Actually, you do have to act because again, it's the same thing I'm watching it and I'm so taken by it. It is such an amazing piece of acting, but it doesn't happen that often where you are so convinced by what you're seeing in front of you that it feels real and deeply affecting.

And that was one of those moments for me. So, for me, it was like I had to remember to not be like, huh?

Or any of my reactions, which would be huge to something like that. I had to give you all poker face approach.

SM: I had to look at the floor most of the time through the interview, to be honest with you, that incredible ornate carpet, because you're trying not to eye roll or to suck your cheeks or show any physical manifestation 'cause that would be very unprofessional and possibly interrupt the flow. But watching your face, my face would've been jaw floor, eye roll, OMFG, but of course you can't show that. And that was an hour I had to keep that face. And that was a real struggle, to be honest.

GA: But presumably too, if you did react in real time, if any of his team saw you react, then they might suddenly, for the first time think, oh, maybe this isn't going our way.

SM: A hundred percent. There's this seismic moment at the end, which you see in the movie where Prince Andrew takes poor Emily on a tour, and she has to respond to his question. As you may have discovered through this movie, I'm a pretty direct person. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I'm blunt for better or worse. And had he asked me that crucial question, how did that go? I have to be honest with you, a woman who's never lost for words, I'm not quite sure what I could have said that would've been sincere and not disparaging and not unprofessional, but not have caused a problem.  So, full credit to Emily, what she said was just so brilliant. But I didn't really know what to say.

This is for everyone, given all the change currently happening in the media, why now more than ever, is it important to show the power of journalism?

SM: That really is the epitome of it. Traditional journalism is at its demise. Newsnight, the incredible program that we honor in this in itself has already been cut from 45 minutes to 30 because of financial pressures at the BBC. The reason that it matters so much is because we have to be careful how we consume. We are in charge of consumption. And Newsnight used to have 1.2 million viewers, and sadly, it now has about 300,000 on average. So please be careful what you consume, because the power of journalism changes the world when it's done right.

And this film reminds us to consume actively what matters to us because stories like this matter, this accountability matters. These women and that team at Newsnight matter and telling this tale and holding powerful people accountable, they'll sleep sound at night if we don't have journalism like this. So, I hope it reminds everyone of that.

—MGP, GMA Integrated News