Earlier this year, I watched Scoop, the dramatization of what happened “behind the scenes” of Prince Andrew’s absolutely disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview. The movie made me really sad, that the BBC had one brief moment of speaking truth to power and they’re still talking about years later, like “remember that time we did something good?” Well, a second movie has been made about everything around the interview. This one is A Very Royal Scandal, with Michael Sheen playing Prince Andrew. Sheen is not a royalist or a monarchist. He wants the monarchy abolished. But he also enjoys a juicy character study, and so he seemingly had a good time playing degenerate Andrew. Sheen recently spoke to People Mag about the role and what he thinks of Andrew:
His research into Andrew: A moment of revelation for Sheen came while watching an interview Prince Andrew gave “maybe 15 years ago,” he recalls. In the interview, Andrew is asked whether he had any advice for Prince William, likely regarding military service. Andrew, who served in a different branch of the armed forces than William, makes a joke about the rivalry between the services. “He says, ‘I should have said you should be in the Navy,’ and then he laughs, and the laugh he does is so startling. It was sort of extraordinary. I’d never seen that before — it was an exposed moment in a way. And that really stuck with me.” It was jarring, Sheen explains, because, “For the royal family, who are usually so controlled, trying to keep things very much under the surface, it was a moment of startling, shocking emotion — even if it was just a laugh. But there was something about it that I thought was quite telling, so that stayed with me.”
Sheen also noticed Andrew’s teeth: “He has quite prominent teeth. He’s quite toothy. So the combination of the relish of this kind of joke that he’d made and then those teeth — it was quite shocking.”
Would Sheen want to be a royal? “Absolutely not. No. The fairytale image of it seems so extraordinary — living in palaces and having everything you want and servants and all that kind of stuff. But the reality seems to be that there are far more restrictions than there are freedoms. No amount of wealth or assets or privilege can make up for not being able to have basic sort of freedoms that a lot of us take for granted. So no, I would not want to have that life.”
The compromises at the heart of the monarchy: “I’d always quite naively imagined that the media and the royal family were quite separate institutions. But then it became clear that there’s all these sort of negotiations that go on between them, and there’s a kind of, you know, ‘Well, if you do this, then we’ll do that. And if you give us this interview, we’ll hide this thing.’ You know, it’s a real — there are deals being done all the time between the two institutions, which I found fascinating, and I didn’t realize that. That was a big surprise.”
What he learned about Prince Andrew: “I was very surprised by, for someone who, despite being perceived as having such privilege, entitlement and what you would imagine is great wealth, seemed, at least from the outside, to be someone who felt like they were being denied so much. Part of the draw towards Epstein was not only that there was some financial help there. That a prince could be in money trouble seemed extraordinary. Someone who you think is going to be incredibly wealthy seemed to have money troubles and also seemed to be drawn to a community where he would be treated like a prince. [He] didn’t feel like he was being treated like a prince in his own country somehow. That I found extraordinary. And quite surprising that someone who appears to have so much could experience their life as having relatively little.”
“There are deals being done all the time between the two institutions, which I found fascinating, and I didn’t realize that. That was a big surprise.” It feels obvious at this point, but I do think that Prince Harry has done a lot to expose just that, how the British media and monarchy do not operate as separate institutions. They work together, hand in hand, and sometimes their relationship is parasitic and sometimes it’s symbiotic. Honestly, Sheen almost seems sympathetic towards the Windsors when he talks about how they don’t have the freedoms regular people take for granted. I think he’s just saying that sh-t because he’s promoting this Prime movie though. He really doesn’t give a sh-t. Here’s the trailer:
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
This looks exactly like Scoop.
Which makes sense, since it’s based off the same facts. But do we need two, exactly the same?
This one is not a movie, it is a TV series, in the serie wth A Very English Scandal.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with what he said I wouldn’t want to be a royal either absolutely nothing to envy. I mean even if Meghan didn’t face racism e.t.c. are there people who would want to be royal too much criticism not worth it, no freedom. At least Beyoncé can decide to do whatever she wants without any obligation
Jude Law recently said he would never bow to royalty and that he believes everyone is equal. He’s playing Henry VIII in his new film. I think everyone should start making these statements more regularly to the media.
I think Andrew (and the rest of them) experience their lives as “having relatively little” because they are incredibly immature, spoiled brats who have been raised to think that the public owes them money, fidelity, and worship. It’s a sick institution that must be abolished. These are not people chosen by a higher power. These are people who ruthlessly stole and consolidated power and money and did so by striking a deal with religious institutions who were in on the grift.
People need to wake up and get these losers off the public dole. And those who say that it is complicated and nuanced are simply fooling themselves.
Royalty is a gilded cage.
I’ll probably watch this. I started a Very British Scandal but I found the story depressing after listening to a few podcasts about it so stopped.
I think what he said about Andrew feeling like he had relatively little to be interesting but it kind of makes sense. he sees his older brother having (what he perceives to be) everything – the historic dukedom that comes with millions a year, the rank, the houses, the knowledge that he’ll be king.
It sounds weird to say “Andrew only has Royal Lodge” when that’s bigger than most of our houses. But I think being in the Firm distorts your perception of reality a great deal. I don’t think he thinks about how much more he has than other people; he sees everything his brother has that he doesn’t. His perception is warped.
I read that book about Prince Andrew from a few years ago – by Nigel Cawthorne – about Andrew and Epstein – and something that stood out to me in all the messiness was that he talks about how Andrew was #2 for the first 20 years of his life – and not just #2, but better than Charles and #1 in a lot of ways – always better looking, more charismatic, more charming, his mother’s favorite – and then Charles married Diana, they had William and Harry and all of a sudden Andrew was #4 and didn’t really mean anything to the monarchy at that point. And it threw him for a loop because he had this inflated sense of ego (maybe he thought Charles would never marry and he would be in line to be king after him) and he never quite recovered and then enter Epstein etc.
The book isnt sympathetic towards Andrew – its actually pretty scathing – but that was a point that stood out to me. The way the royal family is set up around the non-heirs is pretty detrimental as we all have said on here. So I can understand the comment about feeling like he had “relatively little” – of course he didnt, of course he had everything – but Charles had more, and in this family that means a great deal. It’s a really messed up family dynamic and it brings to mind the line from the Crown about how many times the family is doomed to make the same mistake. They can’t figure out how to treat the spares and its a real problem.
But did Andrew have that much money-wise from the RF. Look at PH. He didn’t get much from them except for covering expenses. That is how they keep the “spares” in control. It’s living like a zoo animal and being cared for, but no real freedom. It explains why Andrew reached out to shady sources for money. Of course, it doesn’t explain why Charles got money from shady sources. And it makes Harry look much better than he already did for not taking money from sketchy sources.
Right, exactly, that’s my point. he didn’t have a lot of money from the RF, at least not just free and clear money. we know the late queen supported him but probably not to the tune of 20 million a year like Charles was getting from the duchy of cornwall. So he didn’t have the (relative) financial freedom that Charles did (at least in his view) so thats going to add to the feeling of “he has so little.”
I mean my guess is that spares getting money from sketchy sources has been the MO for generations in the firm, its just that what you could do in the 19th century you can’t do in the 21st.
and for Charles – I think you can probably still apply that same logic. He saw his mother with all this wealth and houses and estates and everything and probably thought “I have so little, its okay that I get money from this sketchy person.” I mean we heard how he told Harry he couldn’t support Meghan, and he didn’t. These people really live in enormously privileged bubbles and what seems outrageous and ludicrous to us doesnt seem that way to them.
I wonder if a reason for this is inheritance/tax laws and restrictions on how Crown assets can be used?
Agree with what you said about Andrew, and I also think it’s a big problem the monarchy has. The Monarch and the Heir are the only ones with independent funding and the Monarch controls the big bucks, so nobody else actually has any money, they have to ask for it. The Queen tried to help her kids by setting them up in homes, but Andrew has of course flubbed that.
Add to that that they are so hierarchical and you cannot be important if you aren’t at the top, it’s no wonder Andrew sought out wealthy people who let him be rich and treated him better than his own family and institution did.
They are a whole mess and it is not creating healthy, happy people.
I was typing my comment while you were posting yours – but, absolutely. And when you’ve add a weak moral compass to the mix, you get Andrew.
So interesting. He doesn’t sound sympathetic to me, more astonished. Outsiders assume being a prince means something, but it’s the direct heirs who have practically everything and the rest swim around looking for crumbs. Of course, crumbs to Andrew would be millions to us…
The Monarchy is a business 😁and ROYAL family is a facade 😁
💯💯💯💯💯
He may be an entitled creep with no moral compass, but at least he was a decent father to his daughters. They have turned out ok and stuck by him.
More than you could ever say about CIIII.