Rufus Sewell was determined to portray Prince Andrew "fairly" in 'Scoop'.
Rufus Sewell wanted to give a balanced portrayal of Prince Andrew in Scoop
The 56-year-old actor plays the scandal-hit Duke of York in the Netflix movie about his 'Newsnight' interview regarding his connection to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and set out to give a balanced depiction of the royal.
Speaking to the Metro newspaper, Rufus said: "It was resisting the temptation to slant one way or another.
"In the middle of it is a human being and humans are a strange mixture. People who do good things can be unpleasant, people who are nice can be evil, people who do terrible things can do good things. And people who do great things can occasionally do bad. It's mixed up.
"(I endeavoured to) put everything, as I saw it, in there, including uncomfortable levels of positivity as well as negativity."
Andrew's disastrous 2019 interview with Emily Maitlis is a familiar tale for the public but Sewell's co-star Keeley Hawes had a different task as she had to bring the relatively unknown Amanda Thirsk – the prince's former private secretary – to life in the film.
The 'Bodyguard' actress explained: "On the one hand, that was a difficult part, and on the other, that was quite luxurious compared with what everybody else had to go through – that I was able to sort of create something of my own in Amanda."
Keeley, 48, acknowledged that there is an additional acting challenge when it comes to portraying real-life figures on screen.
She said: "Obviously they're aware there's so much of this in the public domain – this is a story we're allowed to tell.
"And, yeah, it's always difficult showing real people, living or dead, because even if they're no longer with us, their families are, and you have a responsibility to someone."
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