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  • 2 years ago
With Billie Piper portraying Sam McAlister and Gillian Anderson playing Emily Maitlis in Netflix movie Scoop, Melissa Nathoo sat down with them to find out what events felt like from their side, and how weird it is seeing Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew. Report by Nathoom. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
00:00 Gillian, did you feel like you knew...
00:03 I know that you had a chance meeting with Emily.
00:06 Did you feel like you knew her before you ever met her?
00:09 Because you must have studied her so much.
00:12 Yeah, when I first came into real-life contact with her,
00:18 I went in for a hug like she was an old friend.
00:22 (LAUGHTER)
00:25 Yeah, I was like, "Hi!"
00:29 - Anyway, so yes... - Did she respond well to that?
00:31 Well, she was bouncy.
00:33 - Oh, great. - Yeah, I understand from her...
00:36 Or I understood in that moment from her perspective
00:40 how creepy that must have been and weird.
00:42 But, yeah, it was a bit odd,
00:44 because I had, you're right, completely done a deep dive.
00:48 Whereas, obviously, Billie, you had access to Sam for this.
00:51 What was the vital information you feel she gave you
00:55 to portray her on screen?
00:57 It made so much sense to me that she, as a person,
01:01 would clinch that deal, that she would get that across the line.
01:06 And I think it's largely down to her that that interview ever took place.
01:11 Because she is so warm, she's so energetic, she's so curious.
01:18 She is non...
01:21 Or seemingly non-judgmental.
01:23 She's kind of like... Unlike anyone I've ever met.
01:26 - Very accessible. - She's very accessible, very high energy.
01:30 Unbelie... I was going to say unbearably positive,
01:33 but, no, unbelievably positive.
01:36 She is truly unique.
01:37 So that really helped me make sense of how she got that,
01:42 because it's such a...
01:44 You know, it's... I guess I'm unheard of, that sort of access.
01:47 How intense was it filming that interview section?
01:52 Because that is the part that we've obviously all seen.
01:55 So I feel like for you, there must have been the pressure
01:57 to get that bit really right.
02:00 Yeah, I mean, I think that's probably where the majority of my focus went to,
02:04 was watching, listening over and over and over again to get that right.
02:12 On the day, it was...
02:16 It was fun. They'd recreated the room, the wing in Buckingham Palace,
02:21 and, you know, down to a T.
02:24 And we walked in seeing it for the first time,
02:26 Rufus and I, right one after the other,
02:29 and I was completely shocked.
02:31 I mean, I knew that I was going to be in there.
02:33 I knew that they were going to have a set-up,
02:35 but there was something about walking into that room
02:37 and it being the size that it was.
02:40 And the way that it was planned by our director, Philip Martin,
02:45 was that we were just going to run it from beginning to end and see how...
02:50 You know, because there's bits in between
02:52 where, obviously, to build tension, etc.,
02:55 and you're following other stories and other women who are part of the story,
03:00 we cut to, you know, we cut to Billie,
03:02 we cut to Amanda, Thirsk, Keely Halls,
03:07 and so that all adds to the drama and the tension, of course,
03:11 but the interview itself was about 10 minutes long,
03:14 and so it was a matter of just kind of running that a few times from beginning to end,
03:21 and so it felt very theatrical, in a way.
03:24 Was it weird seeing Rufus all, like, made up to look like someone
03:28 who we've all obviously seen our whole lives?
03:30 That must be weird, right?
03:32 Yeah, it was weird. It was unexpected.
03:35 When he was cast, I was a bit like...
03:37 - He's a great actor, but... - Your face!
03:39 I can't see... I can't imagine how this striking, you know,
03:44 god of a man is going to turn into Prince Andrew.
03:49 And then I got worried. You know how so often these things,
03:52 prosthetics or bad wigs can be so jarring
03:55 and can completely take you out of a drama or a film of any kind,
04:01 and so I was very worried about that,
04:03 and when I saw him the first time, I was like,
04:05 "Well, this is phenomenal artistry."
04:09 And he's going to love you for calling him a god of a man.
04:12 - He knows that. - He knows that.
04:14 Sure is a wear.
04:18 You...
04:19 - He is great. - He is great.
04:21 But as were both of you, like, great job.
04:23 - Great, great job. - Thank you.
04:25 - Thank you so much, guys. - Thank you.
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