Three years ago, Irish actors Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal appeared in a sketch together to raise money for charity. The laugh-getting bit? Scott’s swoon-worthy priest from “Fleabag” hears the confession of Mescal’s dreamy but complicated teenager from “Normal People,” a nod to the TV performances that turned them each into online sensations. “Afterwards, we just sort of hung out,” says Scott, who recalls chatting over gin and tonics at a pub as they connected the dots. “We have lots of friends in common,” Mescal says.
Then they were cast as lovers in Andrew Haigh’s fantasy supernatural romance, “All of Us Strangers,” with Scott playing Adam, a middle-aged screenwriter who begins a relationship with Mescal’s rumpled neighbor, Harry. By turns sentimental and melancholic, Haigh’s beautiful meditation on loneliness also includes ghostly visitations. “I love coming in under the radar,” Mescal says of how awards buzz began as soon as it premiered at Telluride and word of the pair’s radiating chemistry spread. “There just became this hunger to see it,” says Scott. “And that’s what you want for a film as un-label-able as this. “
I heard your first scene together was rushed because of technical issues. For a movie as delicate as this one, that sounds nerve-racking.
Andrew Scott: I actually think the clock ticking can be conducive to creativity. Sometimes a lethargy comes on bigger budget stuff, because your imagination is constantly being interrupted. What happens is you have a little bit of momentum, then you’re waiting around for a bit and the momentum is stopped. So a bit of a — pardon the expression — kick-bollocks scramble can be really wonderful. And that scene, which involves all the characters, is one of the most extraordinary scenes in the film, because it’s all in one take.
A hallmark of Haigh’s films is small physical gestures that feel improvised. Discuss.
Paul Mescal: Like, when I’m brushing my teeth and you come from behind [and hug me]. That was directed. You totally forget that one-eighth of a page in the script. But Andrew puts them in at critical junctures just when you need the film to be healing.
Scott: Lots of the improvisation was physical. The sex in the film was very important. The idea that sometimes one person is nervous at some point or just the way you express yourself physically. Mercifully, we were very comfortable with each other from the beginning. We knew the camera was roaming, so it wasn’t as technical. We [had an] intimacy coordinator and [stayed] within the bounds of what we’d agreed to. But within that we were very free.
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Did you share your director’s initial concern that audiences might find “Strangers” absurd?
Scott: I think all great works of art have some sort of flourish or audacity about them. Any film that we love has a concept that afterwards you think, “Oh, God, that could have been kind of ridiculous.” “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “2001” or “Dr. Strangelove.” Films we love have a singularity about them. And singularity is always going to be absurd in some way — until it isn’t.
Paul, talk about being the last one cast.
Mescal: I read the script, and without getting into a conversation about sexuality, Harry was somebody I understood innately. I don’t have the same shared life experience. I’m not estranged from my family, etc. But I know who that man is and that the people populating the film were going to tell the story correctly. I desperately wanted to be involved. So I pursued the role to a certain extent. But all you can do as an actor is express interest, put yourself on the line and go, “I hope this director likes me.” I remember being incredibly nervous before the Zoom with Andrew. It’d have devastated me to see somebody else play it. I don’t think I could watch it.
How much rehearsal was devoted to building chemistry?
Scott: We didn’t do anything, really.
Mescal: I feel like you can’t work towards something like that. Imagine you’re on a date and there’s no chemistry. It doesn’t matter how many dates you go on. It doesn’t make you feel any closer to that person. [To Andrew] You’ve said this before, but there’s actors who hate each other who have the most amazing chemistry. So it has nothing to do with whether you like somebody or not. But I think it helps when you do. It’s a trust thing.
Clearly, that’s true, because Andrew Haigh mentioned attending a Rolling Stones concert with both of you where you were, and I quote, so “into each other” that you ignored him.
Scott: [Picks up my digital recorder and starts talking animatedly into it] Let’s get the record straight. It wasn’t like he was minding the coats in the corner. Andrew’s husband was there. He made us sound like psychos!
Mescal: We didn’t ignore him. We adore Andrew Haigh.
Andrew, why not invite your director to your 47th birthday party?
Scott: When it was my birthday, he was off promoting our film because he could, because he wasn’t on strike.
Mescal: The last time we took Andrew Haigh out, he complained so much the day after, [saying] he was forced to drink too much, because he was so hungover.
Scott: I hope that’s clarified. And we’re speaking directly to Andrew, as well as to the readers of the Los Angeles Times.
OK then, back to “Strangers.” Let’s end on a moment you especially loved.
Mescal: One of the first scenes that we shot together was the first meeting at the door. That was such a joy to play. To have those words. As an actor, that’s the dream: to be in a scene that’s written that well, directed by somebody who is brilliant, to work with an actor who is brilliant. I could do that for days. Not go to sleep. I’m deadly serious. I could do that for as long as I live. It’s the best. It feels like you’re surfing. [Laughs] I’ve never surfed but that’s what I imagine it feels like.
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