Michael Sheen reveals unique approach to portraying Prince Andrew
Award-winning actor Michael Sheen shared exclusive insights into his portrayal of Prince Andrew in the forthcoming Amazon Prime series A Very Royal Scandal.
The series will delve into the Duke of York’s career-damaging 2019 Newsnight interview with journalist Emily Maitlis.
Sheen discussed the distinct challenges of depicting the Duke of York, given the controversial nature of the role, during a recent appearance on Maitlis’ News Agents podcast, reported GB News.
Sheen described the challenge of playing Prince Andrew, stating: “Once I start the process of playing the character, I have to put all my personal opinions aside, and my job is to try and make that character as real as possible.”
He explained: “When I come to play a character, I usually know the most important things about that character.
“The central, most important thing about this character, I didn’t know.”
To navigate this Sheen employed a nuanced approach. He said: “When we did certain key scenes, I said, ‘Right, I’m going to give you a take now which is leaning this way a bit,’ and, ‘I’m going to give you a take, which is leaning this way a bit now.'”
This approach enabled Sheen to explore various perspectives on the prince’s situation. He also mentioned that his method of portraying Prince Andrew involved a form of mental acrobatics.
The actor explained: “I still knew I had to sort of change little things in my head, do a bit of mental acrobatics in my head, so I wasn’t changing what I thought, but essentially what was going on for him.”
This technique allowed Sheen to explore various aspects of the prince’s character without altering his own personal views on the situation.
A Very Royal Scandal will premiere in three parts on Prime Video starting September 19. The series follows Netflix’s Scoop, which was released in April and also dramatized Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview.
