Rufus Sewell was "quite flattered" to be offered the role of Prince Andrew in 'Scoop'.

Rufus Sewell relished the challenge of playing Prince Andrew in Scoop

Rufus Sewell relished the challenge of playing Prince Andrew in Scoop

The 56-year-old actor stars as the Duke of York in the Netflix movie about the royal's fateful 'Newsnight' interview with journalist Emily Maitlis regarding his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and admits that the "acting challenge" appealed to him.

Speaking at the film's world premiere in London on Wednesday (27.03.24), Rufus said: "My initial reaction was actually, I was quite flattered. I was flattered because it was an acting challenge.

"And the script was amazing and somehow managed to make something that we thought we all knew a nailbiter."

Gillian Anderson plays former BBC journalist Maitlis in the film and was stunned by how much she and Sewell mimicked the infamous 2019 interview after studying the original conversation.

She recalled: "We sit down, and so I'm doing it and doing the gestures. But at the same time, I'm seeing Rufus doing exactly what Prince Andrew did. I just wanted to go: 'You were so good!'"

Director Peter Moffat adapted former 'Newsnight' producer Sam McAlister's book 'Scoops' for the movie and was keen to explore the difference in Prince Andrew's and the public's perception of the interview – after the royal initially thought that he had handled the questioning well.

He said: "Like everybody else, I saw the original interview, and then I heard that Andrew, as we saw in the film, was thinking that it had gone really well.

"And it felt like such an interesting territory for a drama to exist in the difference between how everyone else saw it and how he saw it."

Tagged in