It was one of the biggest “gets” in news in the past five years when the BBC show Newsnight scored a sit-down interview with Prince Andrew to talk about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

How that interview happened is the premise behind the new Netflix movie Scoop, out Friday. The Man in the High Castle veteran Rufus Sewell plays the prince, and he tells ABC Audio as soon as he read the script, he knew he wanted in.

The actor explains, “The fact that something that we all think we know could be rendered in such a way as still a nailbiter, and the fact that it didn’t claim any more knowledge about anyone’s motivations than we know from watching the interview — I had to say yes.”

Sewell says he clearly remembers watching that interview on TV. “Like everyone else, I had my own judgments,” he comments.

The actor continues, “But at the same time, you know, I think you develop a habit of mind of trying to work out why he was behaving the way he was, what his version of the events were, did he somehow see himself as a victim of this as well as other things, because it seemed to me that he did. And that was what was so fascinating.”

Gillian Anderson plays Emily Maitlis, the journalist who conducted the interview, and she explains the bombshell sit-down with the prince was shot on her first day on set. “[You] can’t really change it up too much,” she explains of the interview itself, adding, “But there were certain incremental things that you can do to … you know, make it a little bit more tense.” She concluded, “All of that was fun. It was like theater.”  

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