X FILES LEGEND ON R
Star opens up
THE ‘car crash’ TV interview with Britain’s Prince Andrew was hugely watched when it aired in 2019, but Gillian Anderson said the new Netflix show Scoop is still a thriller.
Gillian (55), who plays renowned journalist Emily Matlis who famously interviewed the prince about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, knows that the Newsnight interview and the subsequent fall out from it is well-versed.
But she said that people will see the film goes behind the scenes and delves into areas we don’t know about.
The X Files legend said: “It’s a film that goes beyond what we already know and what we have seen. This is the story behind the acquisition of one of the most important and dramatic interviews in history.
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“I would describe it as brilliant! Scoop is a really fun film that is actually just as the script was when I first read it, a real pageturner.
“I think most people will of course know so much already about this story but it’s somehow still a proper thriller. It’s really quite amazing that they were able to pull that off.”
Scoop is a dramatisation of the now infamous interview. Former Newsnight editor Sam McAlister, portrayed by Billie Piper, was the one who negotiated with Buckingham Palace to secure the deal.
The sit-down spectacularly backfired on the Prince who failed to defend his relationship
GILLIAN ANDERSON on why behind-scenes tale of Prince Andrew’s car crash TV interview is a thriller in its own right. Sally McLEAN reports...
with the billionaire predator Epstein, arrested in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking and died by suicide while awaiting trial.
He famously claimed to have been in Pizza Express in Woking on the day of his alleged meeting with his accuser Virginia Giuffre who claims he had sex with her three times while she was 17.
He also told Matlis that contrary to Giuffre’s claims that the prince’s “sweat was like it was raining basically everywhere” while she danced with him at a London nightclub, his inability to sweat after service in the Falklands meant her claims were untrue.
The interview was described as a PR nightmare for him and it saw him stepping back from his royal public duties.
Gillian, who also starred as Margaret Thatcher in The Crown, said she didn’t watch the interview when it aired. She said: “I think I actually put off watching it initially because I heard what catastrophe it was. “Then did of
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