Discussing The Sexual Chemistry Between Paul Mescal And Andrew Scott In “All Of Us Strangers”
In an interview with Vanity Fair, film director Andrew Haigh talks about his upcoming release, All Of Us Strangers, and the palpable on-screen sexual chemistry between stars, Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott.
The lens of trauma, childhood and love are used to explore this story
All Of Us Strangers is loosely based on Taichi Yamada’s Japan-set novel Strangers. It’s a character study that balances smouldering romance and painful trauma.
The film follows a 40-something writer, Adam (Scott) who lives a somewhat solitary life in London. Adam’s neighbour, Harry (Mescal) begins a tender relationship with him while he grapples with being pulled back to his childhood home. Adam’s parents, who had died years prior, are there, seemingly unaffected by time or age and he finds himself facing the ghosts of what could have been had they never died.
Haigh’s directorial style focuses on sexual encounters between strangers, as seen in his earlier gay-themed works like the feature film Weekend and the TV series Looking.
For All Of Us Strangers, he discusses how instantaneous the chemistry was between Mescal and Scott. “There was chemistry between the two of them literally the second I saw them together,” he says. “Both of them were pretty fearless. There was no sense of them being afraid of approaching those scenes. They knew how important they were.”
Haigh later says that he doesn’t believe queer roles need to be played by queer people in every role, but for this film, he wanted someone who could understand the complexities and nuances of identifying as LGBTQIA+ in that generation. “I needed someone who could understand that and have those conversations with me. I didn’t want it to feel like I was trying to explain what it was like,” he says.
All Of Us Strangers will premiere at the New York Film Festival before its theatrical release on December 22.
