He’s Prince Andrew’s doppelgänger in Scoop, but the prosthetic makeup is that of a very recognizable movie and TV star.
Based on the best-selling e-book Scoops by Newsnight maker Sam McAlister, Scoop stars Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis, the respected BBC presenter who helmed the widely watched news special. Billie Piper plays McAlister in Scoop, while prolific actor Rufus Sewell plays Prince Andrew. The British royals’ assembly with Maitlis was so disastrous for the then-59-year-old that a British media outlet described it as an interview about a “car accident. “
To prepare for his role as the disgraced Duke of York, Sewell told Vanity Fair that he watches Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview over and over again to examine the Duke’s structural language and speech patterns down to each of the beats and pauses. Sewell told the publication that he even watches YouTube videos in which FBI and CIA experts analyze the nuances of interview footage.
“Obviously there are things he did. He’s afraid of the repercussions of mentioning other names,” Sewell told Vanity Fair. “I think he has a very strong sense that he doesn’t know how much more [information] is out there and who holds the key. I think it shows in his excessive reluctance to make clearer statements about others. . . There’s also a deep sense of worry there.
LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 27: Rufus Sewell attends the world premiere of “Scoop” at the Curzon Mayfair. . . [] on March 27, 2024 in London, England. (Photo via Samir Hussein/WireImage)
Born on October 29, 1967, in Twickenham, England, Rufus Sewell began his film career in the 1991 British drama Twenty-One, where he played Bobby, the drug-addicted boyfriend of the main character Katie (Patsy Kensit). Sewell alternated between a number of film and television roles, adding that of Fortinbras in writer-director Kenneth Branagh’s four-hour film edition of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in 1996.
Several notable film roles followed Hamlet for the actor, John Murdoch’s lead role opposite Kiefer Sutherland and Jennifer Connelly in the 1998 sci-fi mystery Dark City. In 2001, Sewell played the central role of Count Adhemar opposite Heath Ledger’s William Thatcher in the action film. adventure A Knight’s Tale.
Sewell has worked non-stop since the beginning of his career in the early 1990s, racking up more than 70 roles in the more than 32 years. On the big screen, Sewell also starred in 2005’s The Legend of Zorro, 2006’s The Illusionist, 2012’s The Tourist, 2012’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and 2014’s Hercules.
Most recently, Sewell played Sid Luft alongside Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland in her Oscar-winning role in Judy in 2019. The following year, Sewell starred opposite Anthony Hopkins in his Oscar-winning role in the drama The Father. In 2021, Sewell was cast member of writer-director-M’s mystery-thriller Old. Night Shyamalan.
Sewell has appeared on several successful streaming series in recent years, adding one of the lead roles on Prime Video’s The Man in the High Castle from 2015 to 2019, and as a guest on an episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in 2018. In 2023, Sewell starred in the Netflix miniseries Kaleidoscope alongside Giancarlo Esposito and the series The Diplomat alongside Keri Russell.