No wonder Anderson was so apprehensive about playing Maitlis – she’s one of the most recognisable, respected and influential media figures in Britain
March 19, 2024 11:55 am(Updated 1:03 pm)
It must be daunting for any actor to play a real person. Their performance must be accurate, but never simply an impression. Helen Mirren got it right as the Queen, as did Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding in I, Tonya and Joaquin Phoenix in his Oscar-nominated role of Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. The less said about Naomi Watts’ caricature of Princess Diana, the better.
Now, Gillian Anderson has declared that she was “scared” to play journalist and former BBC newsreader Emily Maitlis in the upcoming Netflix film Scoop. The drama – which will stream from 5 April – recounts Maitlis and her Newsnight team’s quest to secure an interview with Prince Andrew (played by Rufus Sewell) and is based on former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister’s memoir.
“It was just too scary to play Emily Maitlis, because she’s still living, because she’s so formidable, because people know her so well,” Anderson told the BBC. In fact, the Sex Education actor was so intimidated by the idea that she initially turned down the role. “I thought I probably do have to do it because I’m so scared of it,” she explained of her change of heart.
No wonder Anderson was apprehensive. Maitlis is a broadcasting legend and one of the most recognisable, respected and influential media figures in Britain. Doing a bad job has the potential to be career-damaging – even for an actor as brilliant as Anderson – and portraying a public figure this revered has its own difficulties. It’s easier to play the baddy; while Sewell can lean into the public’s unease about Prince Andrew, Anderson must convince viewers she’s as poised, tough, and competent as Maitlis was in that historic interview.
The nation loves Maitlis because she speaks her mind. Even when shackled by the BBC’s impartiality rules, the newsreader regularly shared her opinion of the government and its ministers. In 2020 she openly criticised Dominic Cummings after he was caught breaking lockdown rules. “Dominic Cummings broke the rules. The country can see that and it’s shocked the government cannot,” she said in her opening monologue. While the BBC moved quickly to distance itself from Maitlis’s words, Newsnight viewers rallied around her.
Two years later, during her MacTaggart lecture – a speech given to the television industry at the annual Edinburgh TV Festival – she called a member of the BBC board an “active agent of the Conservative Party”. It’s hard to imagine many other ex-BBC presenters bravely taking such a clear aim at the national broadcaster.
She’s proven her mettle in the face of power repeatedly. Her interviews, reports, tweets and thoughts are in the interest of the British public, rather than the broadcaster she’s working for or the governing party – or even herself.
She makes politics – and the people at the centre of it, who love to obfuscate and filibuster – easier to understand and encourages critical thinking. Now co-host of podcast The News Agents alongside Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall (after leaving the BBC in 2022), Maitlis is calmly ruthless in exposing hypocrisy and expertly analyses the stories behind the headlines – in her words, she’s “less buttoned up, a bit more unvarnished”.
Just this week she’s tackled the efficacy of Ofcom’s ability to regulate GB News, questioned the sanctimony of the Conservative Party refusing further donations from an alleged racist and interrogated the intentions of politicians pushing for a general election – are they just keen to save their own seats?
Maitlis is one of the few broadcasters we trust implicitly: she’s forthright, no nonsense and not afraid to take those in power to task. Anderson is right to have been nervous to take on her persona for Scoop – figures like Maitlis are few and far between.
‘Scoop’ will stream on Netflix from 5 April.
Sophie Anderson, a UK-based writer, is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.
