Gillian Anderson and Keeley Hawes: One on One | Bazaar UK

hi I'm key hores and I'm Jullian Anderson and we are here to talk about Netflix scoop with Harpers [Music] Bazar what made you want to do this film scoop I read the script and and I thought I knew um I thought I knew all there was to know about this interview and actually I was completely Amazed by all the stuff I didn't know and these amazing women and their story what made you want to to play Emily maess well I didn't actually originally it was too scary but um but they convinced me and so uh I mean she's an incredible woman formidable contemporary it's a huge responsibility isn't it taking on I mean real people generally yes who are still alive who are still alive and people who you know because there a family or you know you know somebody that you are responsible and hated by um often I I think it's much more difficult for for you and and Rufus because those characters are so you know we feel like we know them so well yeah I got off quite lightly with Amanda th because she's such a private person yeah that actually it was difficult for me to even find out anything useful it's it's hard to find pictures of her and I was it's hard to find pictures yeah tell me a little bit about Amanda th as I said you know I knew nothing at all and I think it's always interesting when you play who whoever whichever whatever sort of character you're playing as an actor you have to find empathy with them I I think you know you have to have an understanding of why they behave as they behave why they make the decisions they they make it's quite interesting being playing a Mander and being on the other side of the team yeah sort of being in in Andrew's Camp um and and trying to find that sympathy with her you know she she's a brilliant bright Woman by CS know single mother of three children incredibly hardworking very ambitious um worked very very hard to to get to where she's gotten life and and she did what she did for the for the right reason you know for for for good reason from her point of view you know and encouraging him to to to give the interview because she wanted everyone to see him through her eyes yeah and you know you can't blame her for that also she didn't put the words in his mouth you know he did that all by himself yeah it could have gone so well it could have gone so well what was it like portraying Emily matless as I said it was daunting I was very familiar with her uh you know from the interview and having listened uh to her new podcast for a long time she's so much of what I'm not [Music] and so I was I was intrigued all of it she I mean she's extraordinary her her brain is extraordinary and her Fitness routine isra and yeah on its own and her miniskirts and stuff and I understood why I was asked to like like I got how there were some similarities in uh in our facial features that might make it work and I was surprised by what happened with a wig and a bit of black eyeliner that was a relief once I once I saw her and then you know the rest of it is just doing her best and is extra and hoping for the best and crossing your fingers but so much it's just you know bit of tan and some black eyeliner and yeah it's amazing a little bit more but bit more work from yeah but fun fun fun fun challenge yes yeah have you ever met Amanda no I haven't I did I I put a request in would have been very nice to to have sat down and sort of almost get someone's blessing in a way actually selfishly of course you you want to say I'm not doing this for the wrong reasons you know and actually I think it's quite quite a positive not portrayal because I don't know her um but I think it's quite positive for Amanda Amanda th but you know to have her story told in this way I don't think anybody comes out of it badly actually no actually I don't I don't either at all including prince Andrew you know it's sort of quite a fair portrayal of all of them but no I wanted to meet her but I think with various ndas and things that have been signed and I'm not sure that she would have wanted to anyway but um I did I did ask but never mind don't think I've ever played a uh I've played a lot of women who have um past and uh this was the first time playing by someone who was still alive we ended up coming face to face at a charity event though which was yes what when we were in the middle of filming actually which was uh so bizarre because I spent so much time in my head with her and studying her did you speak to her I did I did we we were introduced and I was overly friendly because I felt like we've known each other for such a long time it was I was Lally like oh my God you're so embarrassing she just you know she was very sweet and gracious and and uh yeah yeah she's incredible quite brilliant incred lady and she must must be delighted I mean she was up she was up on the stage and kiss dama was getting to interview her and he asked her what it was like to have somebody in the room who wanted me to stand up and and act and and show what what how I behaved like you know how I how I was her oh God I know yeah that happened yes I know thank you very much um fortunately I said no yeah um yeah yeah yes and how excited for you to work with me on this project is clearly what that next question is completely beside myself I well what a silly question is that a genuine yes that is a g no it's it's how excited were you to work together on this together okay um I was really thrilled to with you same I feel like there's been things there's been things that I feel like on the one hand we've both been up for and other things that maybe we would have um been cast this in the same thing and never were so and it's never happened and you've worked with my husband and we were you were in and ball story and I was in and ball story completely completely different so that that that was a little film making and yeah yeah Michael but then of course we had it took two days to to two days to shoot the interview scene um gosh was it over two days well it was it was I think we were given two days and it took two days I just remembered the one it went into it the second day and and I just had this one line in the middle of about 15 that's always the worst CU yeah get in there standing there thinking don't start thinking about like anything else and then came in with the wrong date when I did eventually have to say my line um on the second day of course forg come out with like something completely random I forgot that I remember first walking into that set and gasping I couldn't believe how extraordinary it was cuz that they really did they recreated that room The West Wing or what it was the height the girth the yeah and all of the cameras camera on a track camera everything was set to exactly as it had been and also what I find amazing in the interview CU you know obviously a lot of people most people know of this interview have seen the interview and we know that the film is about the interview so there's no you know you know what's going to happen there no spoiler there's no spoiler except it is very much a thriller and you do you know you do question at various points during a along during the film whether or not it's going to happen whether you know it so it was very effective in that way but but also I found that in watching it even though I knew that even though I was there even though was part of the interview when the interview actually started I in the thing I don't know what Philip did but he he there was something about the edit where suddenly you went from it being everybody in preparation to all of a sudden whether it was like in the camera in their eyes in the interview and I remember really yeah you in it yeah and we were there it's very very funny tell me how did you react to to Rufus the lovely Rufus saw and his physical transformation into prince Andrew well I'll tell you that that moment that I just described of walking onto the set and gasping and suddenly being in this room and realizing wait there are all the cameras and plus our cameras and this is where we're going to do it in a few minutes this interview that I have been working for weeks on and we we're about to actually sit down in those chairs and do it and I had started filming as I walked in because I was so surprised and I turned around and there was Rus behind me and I think I go I think on camera I literally it was like there he was it was so alarming and also because he was still R he was ruus inside of Prince Andrew's face yeah yeah which actually is a genius bit of casting by Nina G because he he he has this sort of likeability and these funny bones which yeah he does is just a gift given anyway um underneath yeah that no amount of Prosthetics can cover up and it definitely comes through which is charming yes it is yeah but in that moment rufus's goofiness through this you know through the playing with yeah it was uh quite alarming I saw the process I don't know if I think we were all sort of in and out of makeup in in the week leading up to shooting and so I sat next to him a couple of times at various stages through the WoW yeah the whole thing but it was much more alarming when he would step out of the trailer If he if he finished a bit earlier or whatever and was dged and then came out of the trailer as roof of Soul again and I just spent the day with him right as yeah a bet like that was quite night day yeah night and day and day yeah it's it's amazing performance what do you hope audiences will take from this film well the film is um you know it's a behind the scenes Story I mean Sam story about um about all the steps that uh were taken at news night in the acquisition of this interview and so I think it's you know I find it fascinating always to go behind and see how things are made and crafted and how much effort and how many people are involved in making something happen but I think almost above anything else it's about independent journalism and the importance of independent journalism and keeping it alive because you know those are the journalists who ask the difficult questions the questions that none of us uh uh get to ask and many of us are too afraid to ask and so for me it's not just a celebration of that in some way but it's also um you know it's it's really you know shouting out loud the importance of that in you know in society yeah and I love the fact that it's told you know I mean obviously ruus is brilliant and prince Andrew has to be had to be a part of it but actually that it is told from the point of view of those women yeah um it feels very powerful yeah I'm very proud to be in this film you me too with you thank you that's why I dressed up that's why I dressed up like you today well thank you very much for watching us interview each other in our velvet suits