[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for A Very Royal Scandal.]

The Big Picture

‘A Very Royal Scandal’ dramatizes Emily Maitlis’ interview with Prince Andrew about his connection to Jeffrey Epstein.
The series explores Emily’s preparation for the interview and its aftermath, offering insights into journalism.
Ruth Wilson portrays Emily’s professionalism and chaos, emphasizing the nuances of the interview process.

The story behind A Very Royal Scandal stems from the events surrounding the real-life 2019 interview between journalist Emily Maitlis (Ruth Wilson) and Prince Andrew (Michael Sheen) about his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein and the accusations regarding a young woman named Virginia Giuffre, who was a minor at the time the allegations took place. Prince Andrew ultimately agreed to do the Newsnight interview because he wanted to clear his name, and he believed he could effectively make the case in defense of himself. But it was likely his own arrogance that led to the shocking and baffling answers that caused his exit from public life.

While many might be familiar with the interview itself, the Prime Video three-part series also explores the lead-up to the interview and its aftermath. Watching Emily’s preparation leading up to the infamously jaw-dropping interview is a master class in how to handle a prickly subject, knowing when to pursue and when to just let them talk. In getting the interview, Emily also became part of the story in a way that defined her career. Collider recently got the opportunity to chat for this one-on-one interview with Wilson about the challenge of playing a public figure, the nuances of how everything played out, Emily’s professional versus personal mode, why it was important to shoot the 20-minute interview scene in one chunk, and the fun in changing her appearance for a character.

Ruth Wilson Was “Gobsmacked” When She First Saw the Prince Andrew Interview Portrayed in ‘A Very Royal Scandal’
Image via Prime Video

Collider: These kinds of projects are so interesting because you feel like you know everything about what you’re going to be watching. And then, you realize that you don’t, and you get so caught up in it. What were the elements of this that you were most interested or excited about exploring?

RUTH WILSON: I saw the interview in 2019, and I was gobsmacked by it. When the offer came through, I was like, “Well, how can you improve on that?” But then, I read the piece and I was like, “Wow!” It’s really fascinating because it goes behind the scenes of these two public figures. The Andrew side of it is fairly speculative because we don’t really know enough about that. But Emily was exacting, and we got a real insight into how Newsnight worked out what it is to be a journalist like this, constantly disseminating news and having to communicate that to an audience. It’s a live wire act that you’re playing, as a journalist on Newsnight. How did they get that story? It almost didn’t happen so many times. They had two days to prep it. It’s extraordinary. All of that was fascinating to me. You’re looking at the insights of the nuance of the interview itself and the new information that Emily provides in that.

Both the Pizza Express moment and the sweating were not part of the original first part of the interview, and he insisted upon those being in in the interview. That’s amazing. Things like that were just fascinating. That blew my mind, the information and insight into how it came about in the first place. And then, there were questions around power, privilege, the press, the relationship with the press and the BBC and the royals, and how that’s so co-dependent, in many ways. She gets what she wants, but then she becomes the story and has more scrutiny as a result, and it defines her career. Did it have any impact at all for the real victims? We’re still left with the same questions that we had at the beginning, so has it done anything apart from entertain us? That’s really interesting to me. I find that fascinating. News is a form of entertainment now. How do you really hold power to account? You have to keep telling these stories, in order to do so. All of that fascinated me, as well as just playing a public figure. I’d never done that before and that was a huge challenge.

We see Emily spend quite a lot of time preparing and practicing and going over what the interview could be, but it doesn’t go how she thought it would. How do you think she was able to stay so calm, cool, and focused? How did that define it for you?

WILSON: That’s what I wanted to draw attention to or lean into. When you watch the interview, it’s a master class. She never drops the ball. He was the perfect interviewee, in some ways. He offered up everything and more, and he kept revealing himself. He didn’t walk out. He didn’t stop. He didn’t get defensive. Everything she thought he might do, he did not do. But she held her nerve and she asked all those questions. She didn’t let on what she really thought about it or how it made her feel. She just kept on asking the questions. It’s an absolute masterclass in professionalism and interview technique. I didn’t wanna lose that, in that scene. I wanted to maintain the strength of that and her power as an interviewer. I wanted to lean more on the before and after and the chaos of journalism. She can be a bit chaotic and runs at high speeds in her brain. She’s more chaotic in her own life and building up to it, and you question, “Is she gonna be able to hold this together?” And of course, she does when it really matters.

She is so focused and she’s brilliant at what she does. I loved the two sides of that. Having met her and spent time with her, she allowed me into her world and her everyday life, and she’s so charismatic and fun. She’s a bit chaotic. She’s always got pen ink everywhere. She has her hair in her rollers, and she eats sweets and drinks coffee. That’s her diet. I was like, “Okay, this is great.” And then, you see her in her performance/professional mode, and she’s extraordinary. I wanted to pull at those two sides of her. In the third [episode], you see her more reflective. She hadn’t really thought much about what it all meant. On the other side, that’s when it really hits her and she wonders, “What has this interview been about, actually, and what are the true consequences of it?,” and not only for her, but for the victims and for Andrew and his family. What was all that? Those were really interesting questions to ask.

Ruth Wilson Was Focused on Nailing the Famous Prince Andrew Interview in ‘A Very Royal Scandal’

You and Michael Sheen shot the 20-minute chunk of the interview as a 20-minute take. What was that like to do, as an actor? How was it to have him to play off of?

WILSON: It was amazing. How it was structured in the TV show, it was disjointed and in different bits, and they were cutting to different scenes in between. I wanted to play it in one because of the way she constructed the interview. I went through that interview and watched it thousands of times, because I was working out the questions she was asking. She’s constructed it like a court case. She knows that if she starts off quiet with these questions, or she gets him to commit to answering those things, then she can ask those big questions down the line. She grows in confidence as it goes on. She knows she’s got him on certain things.

I really wanted to be able to at least play that through a few times. And also, we’re both theater actors. I love the challenge of that and the aliveness of it. I knew that Michael and I would find loads of different things, and that things would come up and surprise us, and would reveal things to us. I knew we’d discover stuff in it if we played it like that, and we did. We had to shoot other bits separately. Once we’d done it all, we then had to come in and do different angles, but that was much easier to do because we’d already explored it in its linear form. But it was amazing. It was electrifying. The pressure was on both of us to do our Emily and Andrew, in front of the crew and the cast. It was all about that, so we had to nail it. It created a special kind of energy, but it was amazing. Working opposite Michael was amazing.

You got to be blonde and have contact lenses and fingernails.

WILSON: I loved that.

‘A Very Royal Scandal’s Ruth Wilson Loves To Transform for the Characters She Plays
Image via Prime Video

Do you always like to lose yourself in a character, in that way? Do you always try to find something, even if it’s small, or do you like to sometimes just look like yourself in a role?

WILSON: I much prefer to go far away from me. It’s like a security blanket, disappearing into something else with just a few things that you can hold on to. I loved playing her. I loved being blonde. I wanted to keep my wig. She lent us some of her clothes and handbags. She lent me her handbag. The handbag in the show is hers. You could literally smell Emily on me. I loved playing a real person because there are very particular things they do and wear. It’s more than my imagination could ever do on its own. I think a real person is always so much more interesting than the one that you create. Although I’m gonna challenge myself to try to be more me, that’s hard. It’s really exposing.

Did you get to keep the wig?

WILSON: No. I’m still trying to get ahold of it. Next time I see you, I’ll have it on my head.

A Very Royal Scandal is available to stream on Prime Video. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Prime Video