Gillian Anderson, known for her Emmy-winning roles as Agent Dana Scully in The X Files and Margaret Thatcher in The Crown, stars as TV news anchor Emily Maitlis in Netflix’s new film, Scoop. It’s based on the memoir of the BBC producer who secured the 2019 interview with Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and younger brother of King Charles, which drew more than 1.5 million viewers. Prince Andrew was friends with Jeffrey Epstein, who recently killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell after being indicted on conspiracy and sex trafficking charges. Photographs showed Prince Andrew with Epstein, and with his arm around the waist of one of Epstein’s main accusers, Virginia Giuffre.
The nation wanted to know the nature of the prince’s involvement in Epstein’s world. To stop rumors, Prince Andrew agreed to speak with one of Britain’s most respected and feared TV interviewers, Emily Maitlis. Viewers derided him during his 50-minute session — deemed the worst PR disaster for the royal family since Princess Diana died. Shortly after the interview aired, Queen Elizabeth stripped him of his royal duties.
The impact of public service journalism attracted Anderson to the role. She tells KCRW, “This is the British establishment. This is Buckingham Palace and the BBC. Two massive institutions over there, and a small group of people, but predominantly women, who did something that had really never been done before.”
She continues, “It's very rare that members of the royal family do in-depth interviews, and particularly for somebody like Emily Maitlis, for Newsnight. … It was a huge, huge event.”
“It's very rare that members of the royal family do in-depth interviews, and particularly for somebody like Emily Maitlis, for Newsnight. … It was a huge, huge event,” says actress Gillian Anderson. Credit: Peter Mountain/Netflix.
Maitlis and her team had 72 hours to prepare, locking themselves away to figure out how to delicately balance their journalistic responsibility of getting the truth — without being accused of attacking the royal family.
The Scoop production team re-enacted about 20 minutes of the full interview. In preparation, Anderson poured over questions that would be featured. She repeatedly listened and watched copies of the interview, even getting a version of the questions on loop.
It helped her get into Maitlis’ mindset: “I got into her rhythm of asking, and she's very slick. She's not normally like that. Emily is not normally as gentle, as seemingly understanding. She's a fierce interviewer. And so she's very careful and considered with how she asks the questions. And she's being hyper-vigilant. And she's judging what's safe to ask next. She manages through the sequence of her questions, and the way that she asks them and listens. She listens and doesn't judge.”
She adds, “The film is as much about class as it is about the interview, as it is about the individuals, as it is about the women. … It ultimately is about, obviously … the courage of the women who came forward to talk about their experience and try and expose Jeffrey Epstein.”
“Emily is not normally as gentle, as seemingly understanding. She's a fierce interviewer. And so she's very careful and considered with how she asks the questions. And she's being hyper-vigilant. And she's judging what's safe to ask next,” says actress Gillian Anderson about Emily Maitlis, who she portrays in the new Netflix film “Scoop.” Credit: Peter Mountain/Netflix.
In addition to Maitlis, Anderson has played other powerful and intelligent women, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Thatcher, Wallis Simpson, and Agent Dana Scully.
The actress says people simply come to her for those roles. “I think I'm talented at being cold and reserved and appearing to be intelligent all at once.”
She acknowledges that sometimes women are called cold, but different factors drive their behaviors. Recalling her lead role in Showtime’s The First Lady, Anderson says she understood Eleanor Roosevelt to be warm and generous, but “sometimes you have to shut things down that feel inappropriate or not moving your cause forward.”
Then as Margaret Thatcher in Netflix’s The Crown, Anderson says the opportunity to play her was a real joy, and she was surprised to learn that the United Kingdom’s former prime minister was so funny.
She adds, “There was a six-part BBC documentary about her … it was like a gift. There were moments where she was preparing for speeches and … she didn't know that the camera was rolling. And she's rummaging in her purse … or she's warming up her voice. Those are my favorite, favorite moments — to get a little look into the personal, the intimate.”
Anderson has split her time between the U.S. and U.K., and she moved to the latter before age 2. “I grew up as a British child. … Even after we moved back to the states, they kept a flat there. … We were always going to move back again. But we didn't, and my mom's still in Michigan. So it was a huge, huge part of my childhood. And the minute The X-Files finished, the first thing that I did was go back, and do a play there, and move back. … I guess it still felt more like home.”
Ultimately, she says, “I feel like my cells are American and my soul is British.”
Anderson says people have suggested getting rid of her U.S. passport, but doing so felt wrong. “It's in that moment that I identify with the fact that I'm American, and will always be American. But … I really struggle to not have a life in the U.K. … It's what I do. I do have one foot in each.”