Andrew Scott: “I Know Who I Am”
The actor also talked about bringing his own pain into his character in the film All of Us Strangers.
Andrew Scott has played the villain in Sherlock and Spectre, but it’s not something he particularly wants to continue doing.
The actor, whose upcoming film sees him star opposite Paul Mescal, portrayed the James Bond villain C in the 2015 Daniel Craig film, but it’s not a role he’d likely take on again.
“If I’m honest, it’s not a territory that I feel like I would want to go over again, Scott said. “Now I know who I am a little bit more, I feel like the work I’m just interested in doing is more in the grey areas. I suppose it’s just that I didn’t think… I just maybe wasn’t that good in it.”
When Adam visits his late parents’ home in the English suburbs, he finds them alive and well, unchanged from the day they died when he was 12 years old.
As the story plays out, the protagonist goes between reality and the supernatural, unable to stay in the past or present for very long.
Haigh revealed that he and Scott kicked off shooting while “holding each other’s hands,” because it was such a personal story for both of them, primarily Haigh who weaved his own life experiences into the script.
Gay Directors. By Emanuel Levy (Columbia University Press)
The shots of Adam’s parents’ house were even filmed in Haigh’s childhood home.
In one scene, Adam comes out to his parents, and Scott said that he reflected on his own experience coming out to his parents in real life while shooting.
“I had a very happy childhood,” he said. “But there’s an inevitable pain that you have to go through when you have to take a risk telling your family something about yourself. I really do think that that is a gift now, because to have to risk everything, and for your family and friends to say ‘we accept you no matter what,’ that’s a real feeling of love that you get confirmed at a very young age, that actually some people who aren’t queer don’t get. I mean, some queer people aren’t so lucky.”
Making the film felt “gratifying and cathartic” because he brought “so much of my pain into it,” the Sherlock actor explained that it also helped him realize that his sexuality can be a blessing of sorts.
All of Us Strangers hit theaters December 22.
