Then, suddenly, Anderson’s arrived—surprisingly petite and shivering from the chill in the room we’re due to speak in, so much so that she pulls out a terry-cloth robe from the wardrobe and puts it on over her silk shirt. We’ve met before, but in the course of our conversation, I notice something subtly different in the way she bends her head and in the slight curve of her lips—shades of Maitlis, as if the character still hasn’t fully left Anderson’s body.
In Scoop, there is something almost eerie about the actor’s embodiment of her. The distinctive voice, her expressions, the way she moves her hands—all familiar to audiences who’ve watched her on the BBC for over a decade—are replicated with immense precision. McAlister is the story’s undisputed lead, liaising with Thirsk to persuade Prince Andrew to commit to the interview, but Maitlis comes a close second. Slinking around the BBC offices with her pet whippet Moody in tow, she’s a force of nature who is determined to hold the Duke to account.
She throws herself into preparations and, on the big day itself, keeps her cool, cutting through the Prince’s bluster with ease to get to the truth of the matter, and leaving him utterly exposed in the process. Throughout, it’s clear that she feels an enormous sense of responsibility to get the interview exactly right. If they don’t, her editor Esme Wren (Romola Garai) tells them, it’s not the Duke, but the BBC that’ll be the story. “No,” Maitlis replies. “It’ll be me.”
She’s masterful but, then again, we’ve come to expect nothing less from Anderson. The 55-year-old American-born, partly London-raised screen legend has always thrown everything into the characters she plays—from The X-Files’s Dana Scully to The Fall’s Stella Gibson, Sex Education’s Jean Milburn to The Crown’s Margaret Thatcher—and collected four SAG Awards, two Emmys and two Golden Globes along the way.
As we await Scoop’s release on April 5, Anderson tells us why she initially turned down the role of Maitlis, how she recently ran into the real Maitlis in Hyde Park, and her upcoming book, which compiles over 100 anonymous letters from women discussing their most intimate sexual fantasies.