Commenters asked for more “normal” photos of Rufus Sewell, so here you go. These are photos of Sewell from the March 27th premiere of Scoop in London. Scoop is the Netflix movie about everything around Prince Andrew’s infamous 2019 BBC Newsnight interview, and Sewell plays Andrew. They really uglied him up for the role, which begs the question – why hire such an attractive actor to play Andrew in the first place? Well, Sewell is sort of revealing why he scored the role – he took it seriously, he prepared for it thoroughly and he really spent a lot of time studying the interview and Andrew’s sleaziness and mannerisms. Sewell recently spoke to the Radio Times (via the Telegraph) about his mindset and preparations for playing Andrew.
Sometimes likeable people are terrible: “The idea that people who are likeable sometimes do terrible things is a very important one. It’s comforting to assign a blanket of evil towards anyone who does anything bad – not to say that he did or didn’t etc. But it’s important to remember that sometimes the nicest people are not good.” The actor insisted that the film “doesn’t make any case for guilt or innocence, one way or another”.
Andrew was always the blokey brother: “Andrew actually has this blokey quality alongside the Windsor clenched-jaw thing. If you listen to him, as opposed to King Charles, he has a lad’s lad quality. He’s Randy Andy who chats up the working girls when he visits the factory.”
He tried to see things through Andrew’s perspective: “His wishes are caught up with all kinds of muddled ideas. One is that he believes he’s a victim of being too honourable. But he’s afraid of what the repercussions will be for other people. And he also feels that he has been set up. Watching him, it’s clear that he has very mixed-up feelings of culpability and innocence and victimhood – and that is fascinating to play.”
Some people still like Andrew: Sewell also said that while researching the role, most people he met who had worked with the Duke genuinely liked him, adding: “And there are people who still like him, you know?”
Sewell isn’t wrong that “some people still like Andrew,” and what that possibly says about Andrew’s charisma on a personal level. I mean, he was his mother’s favorite and before the Epstein catastrophe, Andrew really was one of the most popular people in the family. I think Sewell probably hits on something that Andrew had more of a “common touch” and he was more outgoing than his siblings. I also understand why Sewell is trying to explain his process and how he didn’t want to play Andrew as flatly evil or just a bad actor/liar. That being said, I feel perfectly comfortable saying that despite some positive qualities many years ago, Andrew is ghastly – an abuser, a trafficker, a narcissistic POS. And that makes it difficult to see his humanity.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Netflix.