Emily Maitlis has spoken out for the first time about the Netflix drama depicting her infamous Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew.
Gillian Anderson plays the former BBC broadcaster in Scoop, which began streaming on Friday, which features Rufus Sewell as the Duke Of York.
Meanwhile, Billie Piper takes the lead as former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister, whose book inspired the film.
Ahead of the film, the former X-Files star revealed she’d not had any contact with the real-life figure she portrays in Scoop before production got underway, as the News Agents podcast host is currently involved directly in another streaming project based on the Newsnight interview.
“I’ve left them very much to do their own thing because I think the last thing they want is me peeking around the edges offering my [views],” Emily told Deadline in an interview published on Friday.
“It says it’s based on a fictional account, so I think it goes into different places and it does different things [to the Amazon series].”
Per Deadline, Emily later clarified through a publicist that she was describing Scoop as a “dramatisation” of real events, rather than a “fictional account”.
She added that she was “very excited” about Scoop’s release, and while she’d not yet seen it, she vowed to “get around to it at some stage”.
Emily previously joked to GQ when she found out Gillian was to play her in Netflix’s film: “I have teenage sons, so that was hormonally complicated.”
Reviews for Scoop have been somewhat lukewarm, with praise for the central group of actors, but questions raised about the necessity for a dramatised version of something still so present in people’s memories.
Amazon’s adaptation of the saga will star Ruth Wilson as Emily Maitlis, while Prince Andrew is set to be played by Michael Sheen.