‘I’ve heard nowt’: Hugh Grant responds to claim he’s ‘on shortlist’ to play Prince Andrew in new film

The project, titled ‘Scoop’, will look at how the BBC managed to gain such rare access to the royal for the infamous 2019 ‘Newsnight’ interview

Hugh Grant has seemingly denied reports he is “on the shortlist” of actors to portray Prince Andrew in Scoop, a new film about the royal’s car-crash BBC interview.

The film, written by Your Honor screenwriter Peter Moffat, will tell the story of how the BBC secured the 2019 Newsnight interview with the duke about his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

According to Deadline, Grant was “one of the unconfirmed names in the frame” to portray Prince Andrew.

“I’ve heard nowt,” the actor told The Independent.

In the bombshell interview, conducted by Emily Maitlis, the duke denied he had slept with Virginia Giuffre, who had accused him of abusing her when she was 17. Prince Andrew said the encounter could not have taken place because he was at a branch of Pizza Express in Woking with his daughter Princess Beatrice at the time.

Responding to Giuffre’s claim that he was sweating profusely the night he allegedly assaulted her, he said that would have been impossible because he “cannot sweat”. The moment has since been widely ridiculed.

The interview was so disastrous for the duke’s image that he was banished from royal duties.

Prince Andrew being interviewed by Emily Maitlis in 2019 (BBC/PA)

The film, which will begin shooting in November, will be based on Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews by Sam McAlister, a former Newsnight producer.

Screenwriter Moffat told Deadline that, while it may be a “little crass” to say so, the process of organising the interview – which involved the BBC team and members of the Duke’s household, his private secretary Amanda Thirsk and his daughter Princess Beatrice, who accompanied her father to a meeting with the BBC producers – “makes for very thrilling drama.”