ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was your initial reaction to this project?
Did you guys watch the show back then and remember the scandal?
SIAN CLIFFORD:I was immediately gripped.
Credit: Left Bank Pictures
I remembered this story so well; you couldn’t escape it if you were living in this country.
The press attention that it got was insane.
MATTHEW MACFADYEN:I was on a yacht in Croatia with all theSuccessionpeople when the script came through.
Mark Johnson/Left Bank Pictures
It was just such a brilliant bit of writing.
I remembered it happening years ago, but not vividly.
I think everybody watchedWho Wants to Be a Millionaire?back then.
Matt Frost/Left Bank Pictures
It was such a phenomenon.
It really was event TV.
How did you go about researching these real and still living people?
MACFADYEN:I watched a little footage, but it’s all there in the script, really.
I knew I wasn’t trying to do an impersonation; it wasn’t rigorous carbon copy.
Our brilliant makeup designer, Julie Kendrick, produced the false teeth, and they really helped.
It was like putting on a sort of magic cape: I felt completely different.
You take little bits and pieces, just to get the flavor of it.
I stayed clear of any newspaper reporting because I found it so biased.
Basically, I wanted to get to the heart of her as a human being.
Did you meet the Ingrams?
MACFADYEN:They came to set on our last day of filming.
They were lovely, really sweet.
He’d spent so much time with them, I just knew inherently that he captured them.
So, I’m glad I stayed true to that.
I really hope that I’ve done her justice.
Michael Sheenis so convincing as British TV icon Chris Tarrant.
Did you ever forget it wasn’t really Tarrant?
MACFADYEN:He’s very clever, Michael.
Our first scene was in the courtroom, where Tarrant gets up and gives evidence.
The sweat that would pour off Michael’s head under those lights…
They also built a replicaMillionairestudio.
Was it intimidating sitting there even just pretending to play?
CLIFFORD:Yeah, we really relived the tension of those moments.
That music is designed to get under your skin, and it works.
It’s very, very easy to get sucked in.
MACFADYEN:There was no imagination required.
The sound cues and lighting cues were brilliant.
Truthfully, my heart was banging away.
There are also many funny moments.
How did you amplify the inherent comedy of the situation without mocking anyone?
CLIFFORD:My favorite stories are human stories that don’t have an agenda.
That’s why I lovePhoebe Waller-Bridge’s writing.
It’s why I loveSuccession.
It’s why I love this show.
It’s human, so of course it’s funny.
Of course it’s tense.
Of course it’s awkward.
If the scenes are written in the right way, the humor comes out.
In fact, the more seriously you play it, the funnier it is.
The first episode ofQuizairs Sunday, May 31, at 10 p.m.
ET on AMC, with the second and third episodes following June 7 and 14.
