Is ‘Scoop’ Based on a True Story? What to Know About Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein

If you’re not British, you might need to do a little research before you watch Scoop on Netflix. Because if you’re not familiar with Prince Andrew’s disastrous 2019 BBC interview about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, you’re going to find yourself very lost.

Directed by Philip Martin, with a screenplay by Peter Moffat, Scoop stars Billie Piper as the real-life BBC producer, Sam McAlister, who landed a historic interview with Prince Andrew for the hard-hitting TV news program, Newsnight. The interview was conducted by Newsnight host Emily Maitlis (played by Gillian Anderson in the movie), and, from the Royal Family’s perspective, was a total train wreck. But for McAlister, Maitlis, and the BBC, it was the scoop of decade.

The interview itself was less than an hour, but Scoop focuses in on the long process leading up to that fateful day. It’s an interview and a story that is famous among the British population, but it’s less well-known among Americans. But don’t worry, because Decider is here to help. Read on for a crash course on the Scoop true story that you should know before you watch the movie Scoop on Netflix.

Is Scoop based on a true story?

Yes, Scoop is based on the true story of Prince Andrew’s infamous 2019 BBC interview with Newsnight host Emily Maitlis , in which he callously brushed off his longtime friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The script was adapted from the book Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews by Sam McAlister, the producer who secured the interview with Prince Andrew.

What to know about the Prince Andrew interview from the Netflix movie Scoop:

You’ll need a little context to fully appreciate the story told in Scoop. First, you should know that Jeffrey Epstein was a rich financier who used his wealth and status to get away with sexually abusing young girls for over a decade, until he was finally arrested on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors in July 2019. He died in his jail cell in August 2019, and the official cause of death was suicide by hanging. Many have speculated that Epstein was actually killed to prevent him from naming names of the many powerful people he surrounded himself with—including Prince Andrew—who may have also engaged in sex crimes and other illegal activities on their numerous, documented trips to Epstein’s estates.

Scoop opens with a paparazzi photographer capturing a photo of Prince Andrew walking in New York’s Central Park with Epstein in 2010—proof that the prince had not severed ties with Epstein, even after Epstein was convicted as a sex offender in 2008, for procuring prostitution from minors. Four years later, Prince Andrew was accused of sexually abusing a minor, Virginia Giuffre, who was allegedly trafficked by Epstein. Then in 2019, Epstein was arrested, and then died, bringing his name to the forefront of the news, and Prince Andrew’s friendship with Epstein was again under scrutiny.

Scoop plays up some of the drama story of securing the BBC interview with Prince Andrew after Epstein’s death, but much of it is based on McAlister’s own, true life account. You can read about how McAlister clinched the interview in an excerpt from her book, published in Town & Country. And for her part, Billie Piper worked very closely with the real McAlister while making the movie. In an interview with Decider, Piper described studying McAlister’s mannerism and speech patterns, “whilst finding a way to make her my own. She wasn’t so public facing, so I didn’t have to do the level of accuracy that Gillian [Anderson] and Rufus [Sewell] had to do.”

A significant portion of Scoop is dedicated to recreating the interview itself, which you can watch in its entirety below. Director Philip Martin had actors Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell perform the entire interview, without calling cut. In an interview for the Scoop production notes, Martin said, “It’s easier to understand the emotional flow of the interview rather than stopping and starting. So they, and we, did it for real. We matched the BBC’s camera set up, then we had our own cameras, and we just set it all up and let it go. And they were both word perfect. The first take was amazing — and in some ways Gillian and Rufus understood the interview in a way that I didn’t fully appreciate until that moment.”

In that same interview, Anderson admitted she found it “daunting” to emulate Emily Maitlis. “It was the first time that I’ve played a real-life character who is still alive, and I have to say, it’s more daunting playing an Emily Maitlis than a Margaret Thatcher even,” Anderson said. “People know her so well, they listen to her daily, they watch her and have for years. Also this interview that the film is about is etched in people’s minds. “

Sewell was similarly intimidated by the idea of transforming into Prince Andrew. “I don’t have a natural gift as a mimic, as some people do, so I had a lot of work to do,” Sewell said in an interview for the Scoop production notes. “I was working for hours and hours just obsessing on this interview and what I thought was going on behind what he was doing – all those attempts to re-describe and distract and attempt to tell the truth and attempt to evade. And also, to somehow find a line where I got the humour of it as I saw it, right. Watching the interview is to me a horrible thing but his performance reminded me of David Brent [from the UK version of The Office] more than anything else.”

In the interview, Prince Andrew denied ever having sex with Giuffre, and claimed to have “no memory” of the photograph taken of himself and Giuffre. He backed up his denial with a number of bizarre claims, including the claim that he is incapable of sweating. (Giuffre had described Prince Andrew as sweating profusely.) When pressed on why he chose to stay at the home of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, even after his crimes had been brought to light, Prince Andrew replied that it was “a convenient place to stay.”

The intense criticism of Prince Andrew that followed his BBC interview ultimately led to a statement from Buckingham Palace, three days after the interview aired, that Prince Andrew was stepping down from all public duties. It was later confirmed that he would also step down from all 230 of his patronages.

When asked for the Scoop production notes why she thought Prince Andrew agreed to the interview, the real Sam McAlister said, “Many powerful people think that not only are they not going to do a bad interview, but they’re probably going to do an excellent one. In his very difficult position, my impression is that he felt he would be able to eradicate the perception of him that had built up over the Epstein scandal by doing this interview.”