All Of Us Strangers: Why casting Andrew Scott was ‘important’ to the film
People are shocked at Andrew Scott’s snub from this year’s BAFTA nominations. (Searchlight Pictures)
All Of Us Strangers director Andrew Haigh has explained why it was so “important” to cast Andrew Scott in the lead role.
The highly anticipated queer romantic fantasy tells the story of Adam, played by Scott, a quiet gay screenwriter who develops a relationship with his neighbour, played by Paul Mescal. At the same time, Adam begins conversing with the ghosts of his dead parents during brief visits to his childhood home.
Already receiving rave reviews from early screenings, All Of Us Strangers has started to develop some Oscar buzz.
Ahead of the film’s mainstream release, Haigh explained that he has never been a director who required queer actors to play queer roles, but for this film, things were different – at least when it came to Andrew Scott.
Speaking at an early screening of the film at the New York Film Festival, Haigh explained that getting an actor who could identify with the character of Adam’s sexuality was “an important part of it.”
“Andrew I’d liked for a long time, and I felt like this was kind of a perfect role for him,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter.
“And I’m not one of those people that say you have to be queer to play queer roles, but it was important to me in this case.
“Because there’s so much nuance that I was trying to get to, I didn’t want to have an endless conversation with somebody who’s trying to understand it.”
When it came to Paul Mescal in the supporting role, Haigh didn’t consider the Irish actor for quite some time, believing that he wouldn’t be interested.
But as soon as he heard that Mescal wanted to be involved he hired the Normal People star right away, and got to work on “getting their chemistry to feel real.”
Much to the delight of fans, the film promises to deliver “fearless” sex scenes between Mescal and Scott.
Hinting at what viewers can expect from the more intimate moments, Haigh told the audience: “We actually spoke a lot with the actors about how we wanted it to feel,”
“I wanted it to feel real and tender and delicate, and a bit sexy and a bit dirty sometimes – all of those things that sex is.”
To make sure he and his team got the saucy scenes just right, Haigh brought an intimacy coordinator onto the set – a first for the director.
“We had an intimacy coordinator which I never used before, which was its own thing,” he said.
“But I’m all for them. I understand why they exist. I think they’re a great thing.
“It’s a slightly strange experience when there are now four of you talking about the scenes when before it was just the three of you, but I completely understand why they exist.”
All of Us Strangers is due to open in the UK on 26 January.
