Ruth Wilson Wore Emily Maitlis' Jacket from Prince Andrew Interview to Prepare for 'A Very Royal Scandal' (Exclusive)

Wilson transformed into Maitlis for ‘A Very Royal Scandal,’ which dramatizes the 2019 BBC ‘Newsnight’ interview that ended the Duke of York’s royal career

As she prepared to play Emily Maitlis for Prime Video’s A Very Royal Scandal, Ruth Wilson metaphorically stepped into Maitlis’ shoes — but literally stepped into other clothing items the veteran journalist actually wore.

Maitlis wore a military-style jacket for her infamous 2019 BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew, which is the subject matter covered in the new three-part series, out Sept. 19. Though during filming Wilson wore a replica jacket, Maitlis — who was an executive producer on the show — gave her the actual jacket she wore that day to help her get into character beforehand.

“She gave me her clothes to wear,” Wilson tells PEOPLE. “She gave me the jacket.” Laughing, she says the gesture to help Wilson embody her was so intimate that “I could smell her on me.”

Related: Tensions Run High in New Trailer for Prince Andrew Drama A Very Royal Scandal (Exclusive)

The jacket wasn’t all that Wilson took from Maitlis’ actual wardrobe. The first question Wilson asked Maitlis when she was preparing for the role was, “What’s in your handbag?” — and “the bag that I carry around with me everywhere is her personal bag,” Wilson says. She adds that the lining of the bag “is just covered in pen ink” and that “it was really revealing because it’s full of headache pills and paracetamol, an eye mask. She’s like, ‘You’ve always got my passports.’ It’s, you know, you’ve always got to be on, ready to leave.”

Of Wilson’s leadoff question about what’s in her handbag, Maitlis tells PEOPLE, “I thought, ‘Oh my goodness. Am I going to lie about this and make myself sound really sophisticated and really organized and really cool?’ And then I said, ‘You won’t want to see the inside of my handbag.’ And she said, ‘I will, because it will teach me more about you than anything that you can tell me.’”

Of its contents, Maitlis says “my handbag is the handbag of a woman who prepares for catastrophe at every step of the way. It has everything you could possibly imagine, including things that should no longer be there because they’re way past whatever sell-by date they had. And once Ruth saw the contents, she was like, ‘I get it. You prepare for things.’” Maitlis adds, after looking through her handbag, Wilson “did actually start to understand my head a bit — my mind.”

Maitlis wasn’t on set much because “I was quite intimidated by the idea of her watching me,” Wilson says. “I was like, ‘Please don’t be around.’ I just thought, ‘I’ll be too self-conscious.’ But we did work a lot together prior to it.”

Related: Michael Sheen Transforms Into Prince Andrew for Amazon Prime's Upcoming Series 'A Very Royal Scandal'

Wilson went to interview Maitlis in preparation for the role, which she calls “terrifying, sitting there interviewing a great interviewer.” Wilson also watched Maitlis at work, “doing her daily routine so I could observe her in many ways, and there was lots of things I picked up from that, actually,” she says. 

Zoom calls followed, and Maitlis “was so generous with her time,” Wilson says. “And honestly, it must be quite a terrifying thing to do to offer yourself up to be observed in that way. I really have such admiration and gratitude for her because it helped get a three-dimensional look at her. Things like the rollers in the hair —  that came totally from me, going to watch her at work, and she had rollers in her hair.” 

Wilson adds she learned about “the chaos of being a journalist” from Maitlis, who was “very generous, and we’re still in touch now.”

When it came to watching Wilson portray her, “When I was watching stuff back, I didn’t know whether to cringe or cry or shriek with laughter, because she just nailed it,” Maitlis says.

A Very Royal Scandal follows the lead-up, aftermath and the pivotal interview between Maitlis and Prince Andrew from nearly five years ago, where Maitlis asked the Duke of York about the scandalous accusations he faced regarding his involvement with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Guiffre, who accused Andrew of having sex with her when she was 17 years old. Soon after the Newsnight interview aired, Prince Andrew announced he was stepping back from public duties, and in January 2022, his mother Queen Elizabeth stripped him of his military titles and patronages amid Guiffre’s civil sexual assault lawsuit that has since been settled. Prince Andrew has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Though Prince Andrew, played by Michael Sheen, is a central figure in A Very Royal Scandal, the series is largely focused on the women surrounding him. Emily Maitlis, who conducted the infamous interview, features prominently, as do the three women closest to Andrew: his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, and his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, all of whom are given significant screen time. The series also sheds light on the women impacted by the alleged actions of both Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender.

“[Maitlis] had the responsibility of those women on her shoulders, and every person watching, to ask the questions and get him to tell his story, and she did it,” Wilson says. “And I think that’s a very positive affirmation of what very successful, smart, brilliant women can do and hold power to account, and be the voice for women who can’t do that, or people who aren’t in a position to do that. She has that privilege of having that interview, and then the responsibility that comes with that privilege — she makes good on that.”

But it wasn’t all easy for Maitlis, whose character in A Very Royal Scandal encounters backlash after the interview airs. Deemed “too good” at her job, powerful figures (men in particular) refuse to be interviewed by her for fear of being taken down as Prince Andrew was after their on-air conversation.

“She’s a female journalist in a very male world that sort of has to constantly prove herself in that world, whereas men don’t often have to,” Wilson says. “She thinks this interview will silence her critics, and in fact, because it was so successful and because it was with someone so powerful, people stopped wanting to be interviewed by her, and that truly happened. People stopped wanting to come on. She was too much of a threat.”

Wilson adds, “So, unfortunately, there’s a negative side to that. What’s amazing about her, and watching that interview thousands of times, you realize that she, however powerful that person sitting opposite her is — and Prince Andrew is incredibly powerful — she is going to ask those questions, and she’s going to hold him to account, and she’s going to get his story. And she did not back down from asking difficult questions in that scenario.”

After the Newsnight interview, the longtime journalist went from reporting on the story to becoming the story, which “wasn’t a comfortable place for her to be,” Wilson says. “She doesn’t like being the story, necessarily. I mean, part of her does, because she’s a performer. So actually that’s sort of a complexity in her, which I really liked. She becomes the new story rather than drawing attention to the victims. So that’s also what the show deals with — [it] questions that.”

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A Very Royal Scandal isn't the only dramatization exploring this pivotal moment in television history. Earlier this year, Netflix released Scoop, a film featuring Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew and Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis. However, A Very Royal Scandal benefits uniquely from Maitlis's role as an executive producer, which provides the show with "information from the source," according to Wilson.

"This show allows us behind the curtain," she adds, [But] without a criminal court case, we’ve got no idea what really happened. It maintains that mystery and keeps that central question alive about power and exploitation and privilege and the responsibility of those in power and holding power to account. So I think the show does all of that really successfully.”

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