In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast features in-depth conversations with today’s most noteworthy actors and creators. Join host and senior editor Vinnie Mancuso for this guide to living the creative life from those who are doing it every day.
In Andrew Haigh’s new drama, “All of Us Strangers” (out Dec. 22), Andrew Scott plays a lonely writer named Adam who strikes up a tender romance with the only other person in his apartment building, Harry (Paul Mescal). At night, Adam takes the train to his childhood home to spend time with his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell)—despite the fact they both died tragically 30 years ago.
On this episode of In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast, Scott joins us to discuss his role in the haunting story, his playful approach to acting, and the core tenets he believes all performers should follow.
Vulnerability is something Scott looks for in all his roles.
“I feel like all stories are love stories. Some of the stuff that I don’t really respond to is [when] everything’s relentlessly positive, because I think we only understand love because we experienced the opposite: fear or loneliness or despair. I do think about that every time I do a project. I think about, Who does this person love? Are they concealing that love? Or are they longing for love? What’s the most vulnerable part of them? I think vulnerability is something I definitely look for in every single character, because every single human being in the world is [made] vulnerable by the very fact that we don’t know, for sure, what’s going to happen to us when we die.
Credit: Parisa Taghizadeh
So somebody who can’t express vulnerability—I’m thinking of Donald Trump. The reason I think he’s got mental health issues is because he isn’t able to express any vulnerability. I’d be very interested to ask him what he thinks is going to happen when he dies, and if he would admit to the fact that he might actually die. That sort of stuff I find really fascinating, playing those kinds of characters who find it really difficult to express their vulnerability, and [portraying them] without judging those characters. To be able to [ask], Why do they beat themselves up? Why are they pompous? Why are they selfish? Why are they cold? Even if you don’t get to express it [onscreen], [what’s] their Achilles’ heel? For me as an actor, if just to keep [the answer] in my back pocket—and whether that’s expressed or not, it’s there.”
He finds onscreen chemistry to be an elusive concept that actors need to work at.
“[Chemistry] is unspeakable. And it’s not always sexual chemistry, you know—there [are] kind of a few things I’m thinking about, because I know that there are some actors who really don’t get on well [who] have fantastic chemistry. But, for example, with Paul and I, we have terrific chemistry as people—which makes the process really easy. Because I love him and he loves me, we find it easier to work together and act together and look after each other. But the audience isn’t required to believe that me and Paul have chemistry. Actually, the chemistry that exists between Harry and Adam, our [‘All of Us Strangers’] characters, is completely different. Paul’s character is very front forwarded; my character is very shy and gentle and vulnerable. I don’t think we’re as extreme as that—the dynamic is just different. So actually…there’s a great skill involved in creating chemistry, because we have to create the chemistry for the characters. So what’s it like to be shy and to trip up over a sentence, or to stop breathing when you’re kissing somebody because you haven’t kissed somebody in a while? That is a chemistry that exists that’s very tentative and interesting to look at, but it’s still a skill [to perform it]; it’s still created.”
Scott wants to maintain the playfulness of every part he chooses.
“Lightness is really important to me, because I like to be able to dive off the cliff without feeling burdened by too much seriousness. And by ‘seriousness,’ I don’t mean that everything I’m doing is funny and frothy…. I think that’s why becoming an authentic person and being very accepting of myself allows me to become a better actor, because I’m not ashamed of different parts of myself. If you’re trying to conceal a part of yourself, then you’re going to play completely the opposite of it…. It was interesting—early on in my career, even when I was not very comfortable with myself, I never didn’t play gay parts if they came up in the theater or in movies. I never was like, Well, I don’t want people to see that side of me. In fact, that was a way to express that part of myself when I couldn’t really do it in real life. I think it’s just keeping that sense of, We could do this at any time…. We could create playfulness right now, if we wanted to. And that’s the word that has without a doubt been the key ingredient to my work and hopefully will continue, which is, you ‘play’ a part. Keep your playfulness going. It doesn’t mean that you can’t play really serious and dark, despairing notes, but you’re still playing notes.”
Listen and subscribe to In the Envelope to hear our full conversation with Scott.
