Bags under the eyes – check. Drooping jowls – check. Paunchy middle-age spread – check.
As our exclusive pictures show, Rufus Sewell has certainly been doing his homework to play Prince Andrew. He looks uncannily like the bealeagured Royal – most likely with the help of prosthetics.
The images recreate the Prince’s now-infamous walk in New York’s Central Park with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, filmed for upcoming Netflix production Scoop.
The film, which is due for release in 2024, will dramatise Andrew’s disastrous 2019 interview on BBC’s Newsnight.
The cast also features Gillian Anderson as interviewer Emily Maitlis, Billie Piper as Newsnight producer Sam McAlister and Keeley Hawes as the Prince’s former private secretary, Amanda Thirsk.
The images recreate the Prince’s now-infamous walk in New York’s Central Park with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein (pictured, left), filmed for upcoming Netflix production Scoop. Pictured: Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein (left) and the actors (right)
The film, which is due for release in 2024, will dramatise Andrew’s disastrous 2019 interview on BBC’s Newsnight. Pictured: Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew
It is based on Ms McAlister’s book Scoops: Behind The Scenes Of The BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews.
The film’s promotional material describes it as ‘the inside track on the women who broke through the Buckingham Palace establishment to secure the scoop of the decade – one that led to the catastrophic fall from grace of the Queen’s “favourite son” ‘.
It adds that the drama focuses on everything from ‘navigating Palace vetoes, breaking through to Prince Andrew’s inner circle… to the jaw-dropping interview itself’.
Andrew was reportedly a good friend of Epstein, who hanged himself in jail in 2019 after being arrested for the sex- trafficking of minors.
The images of their 2010 walk in Central Park are often used as proof of their close relationship.
One onlooker to the scene, which was filmed in London, said Sewell ‘really looked the part’, adding: ‘It appears that he has put on a few pounds for the role. This is not the sleek and debonair Rufus Sewell we are used to seeing.
One onlooker to the scene, which was filmed in London, said Sewell ‘really looked the part’, adding: ‘It appears that he has put on a few pounds for the role. This is not the sleek and debonair Rufus Sewell (pictured, right) we are used to seeing.’ Pictured: Jenna Coleman as Victoria and Rufus Sewell as Melbourne in ITV’s Victoria
‘Just like Andrew, he is carrying surplus weight around the jowls and also seems to be hiding a bit of a paunch under that anorak. The resemblance is quite uncanny.’
Sewell is best-known for his villainous roles but has typically portrayed smouldering baddies, such as Kate Winslet’s ex-boyfriend Jasper in romcom The Holiday or Count Armand in The Legend Of Zorro.
The film is being shot as Prince Andrew, who last year made an out-of-court settlement with his sex-abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre, is understood to be in talks with an American journalist to collaborate on a tell-all autobiography.
Sources close to the Duke are referring to the book as ‘Spare 2.0’, as it comes after Prince Harry’s controversial memoir, Spare.
An insider told last week’s MoS: ‘Andrew was the original spare and there’s plenty of material… It would give him the opportunity to explain his association with Epstein and the resulting fall-out.’
