Gillian Anderson has reflected on a chance meeting she had with Emily Mailtis ahead of playing her in a new Netflix movie.
The Sex Education star is set to play Emily in the film Scoop, which is based on Prince Andrew’s infamous interview with Newsnight back in 2019.
During a new interview with The Guardian, Gillian shared that Emily had declined a meeting with her before filming got underway, as the former BBC journalist is already involved in another TV adaptation of the interview at Amazon Prime.
However, the pair’s paths wound up crossing by chance anyway, when they bumped into one another at a recent charity event.
“I had literally driven in from the country, having spent a week in mud with kids on the side of some hill. I didn’t have any makeup with me, didn’t even have a brush to go through my hair,” Gillian told the outlet.
“And then, all of a sudden, there’s Emily Maitlis, and she looks like a movie star.”
Gillian recalled “going in for a hug” when she met Emily, feeling like she knew her after having “studied for her months.
“She was very sweet, but very boundaried,” the Emmy winner explained. “Very boundaried.”
Scoop will also star Keeley Hawes and Billie Piper as Prince Andrew’s former aide Amanda Thirsk and Newsnight producer Sam McAllist respectively, while Rufus Sewell will portray the Duke of York.
Gillian previously admitted she’d found the task of playing Emily Maitlis to be a daunting one, revealing it was almost “too scary” for her to say yes to.
Scoop will debut on Netflix on Thursday 5 April.