Ordeal by Innocence director talks reshoots without Ed Westwick

Sandra Goldbacher was encouraged by Ridley Scott’s All The Money In The World re shoots when she had to refilm TV drama Ordeal By Innocence without Ed Westwick.
The three-part Agatha Christie miniseries was due to air in the U.K. as part of the Christmas 2017 schedule, but bosses at the BBC decided to pull it following allegations actor Ed had sexually assaulted three women.
With the production in limbo, director Sandra took her cue from Ridley’s handling of the Kevin Spacey sexual harassment claims that rocked his movie, with the filmmaker deciding to recast Christopher Plummer in the role of John Paul Getty.
“I felt encouraged by Ridley Scott having done it. It was like a sort of talisman for us all: he’s done it, so we can do it,” she told the Radio Times.
Cemetery Junction actor Christian Cooke took over from Ed, who denies all allegations against him, with 35 scenes in total being reshot over 12 days.
Getting the cast back together was not an easy feat though, and producers were forced to implement clever filming techniques when actress Alice Eve was unable to make it back.
“We used split screens in the way you would if the same actor is playing twins in a film,” Sandra explained. “We merged Alice’s performance from the first version into the new scenes.”
The weather also caused the production team a headache.
“The biggest problem was having to cut out icy breath from scenes that were supposed to be taking place in the middle of August,” Sandra said.
“It was daunting, initially, but then really quite exciting. There was a Dunkirk, show-must-go-on atmosphere.”
Ordeal by Innocence, which also stars Bill Nighy, Eleanor Tomlinson and Luke Treadaway, starts on Easter Sunday (01Apr18).