Michael Sheen has spoken about the difficult time he faced playing Prince Andrew in new drama A Very Royal Scandal.
He portrayed Prince Andrew in some of his darkest moments, including his notorious Newsnight interview and the settlement of the case raised by Virginia Giuffre, who alleged she'd been trafficked to have sex with him by the late Jeffrey Epstein - something he's always denied. While actor Ruth Wilson had direct access to the character she was playing - Andrew's BBC interviewer Emily Maitlis - Michael couldn't say the same.
Despite jokingly quipping that he'd lived with the Prince "for six months", he was instead left trying to find a "point of connection" with him from afar. "I had to think, 'Where's the thing that suddenly hooks me in somehow?'" he mused, "and it was the footage of Andrew when he came back from the Falklands on the dockside with the rose in his mouth.
"[I was] thinking, 'That's about as good a moment as you're ever going to get, you know? The brave, conquering hero, returning [from the war really fit and really hot, and everyone thinks you're great!" Pausing for comedic effect, he added: "It was all sort of downhill from there - and that downhill journey was my hook in."
He added that many aspects of the Prince remain a "mystery" to him, as he still has no idea "what he did and didn't do" when it comes to the many accusations against him. He joked: "Funnily enough, I didn't get much cooperation [from Andrew himself]!"
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Amazon Prime's A Very Royal Scandal is coming to viewers' screens months later than Scoop, a Netflix drama which covered exactly the same topic.
However, there are no broadcasting wars, as the latest offering is very different, featuring executive production from Newsnight interviewer Emily Maitlis herself.
In contrast, Scoop was focused more around the book written by Sam McAlister, the journalist whose crucial communication with the Prince's press office secured colleague Emily the interview.
It's one that Emily tells us she still balks at in disbelief today, as she can scarcely believe he agreed to it.
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"Was it a bad decision?" she mused, adding: "[The downfall] was very sudden, losing your titles, losing all your duties, losing your uniform, losing the respect of the British public.
"I guess the question that we're asking ourselves now is: has it reset the shape of the monarchy in any form?"
She elaborated: "Somebody said to me last week, 'I've just suddenly realised that one of the queen's last big decisions was to let Andrew do that interview - it had her blessing'... and you have to sort of wonder, were there people around Charles at that point, who said: 'Was that the right decision?'"
She added that there is still "no closure" even today, as accuser Virginia Giuffre "didn't get her day in court" but a payout instead.
"We don't know that she was a victim of Andrew," Emily concluded.
All three episodes of A Very Royal Scandal are available exclusively on Prime Video from Thursday 19 September.
