Dan Stevens has explained why he criticised Prime Minister Boris Johnson on live television, during an appearance on The One Show.
On Wednesday (13 April), while promoting his forthcoming series Gaslit, which deals with the Watergate scandal of the Seventies, the British actor spoke out against Johnson, shocking the presenters of the BBC show.
In a new interview with GQ, Stevens has opened up about what prompted him to speak out against the PM.
“It’s all too rare to see someone speaking their mind and the truth on live television these days,” he said. “I think people need to be held to account.”
“Even our best political journalists are afraid to actually say what’s going on, which makes me quite cross,” he added.
When asked how he came up with the bit, Stevens responded that it was “hard to ignore the parallels” between current UK politics and the Watergate scandal.
The Conservative leader is currently facing calls to resign after being fined, along with Rishi Sunak, for breaking lockdown to attend illegal parties at Downing Street.
“It’s very much headline news here. I hadn’t really realised until I got on the ground,” he continued.
“I got here and it’s on every radio bulletin. Absolutely outrageous. And yeah, it got me quite fired up. I thought it was worth highlighting the extraordinary similarities,” Stevens said.
He further shared that “there was massive applause and laughter” on set and that his off-script moment “seemed to go down fairly well”.
Gaslit comes to StarzPlay on Sunday 24 April.
