On a Friday afternoon in Los Angeles in November, the pair remain in their own world.
And when you pry, they shrug it off.
“We didn’t!”
Jamie Bell, Andrew Scott, and Claire Foy in ‘All of Us Strangers’.Credit:Searchlight Pictures
“That’s not true,” Mescal adds, laughing.
“That’s a little bit of hyperbolic directorial license,” Scott says.
“We need to have a word with him.”
Andrew Scott as Adam in ‘All of Us Strangers’.Searchlight Pictures
The whole kit and caboodle!"
Scott stars as Adam, a lonely screenwriter living in a near-empty apartment complex in London.
He has a chance meeting with one of his only neighbors, a man named Harry (Mescal).
Paul Mescal as Harry in ‘All of Us Strangers’.Searchlight Pictures
“It was an emotional thing to make,” the British filmmaker, 50, continues.
“There were lots of very personal things in it for me.
But it also was for Andrew, Paul, Claire, and Jamie.
They all brought their own personal life to the table when we were making the story.”
Scott and Mescal joke how it was their Irish heritage that helped them understand what Haigh was going for.
“The means to express is something that we as a culture are still processing,” Mescal says.
A good healthy dose of repression helps the ol' acting."
The connection these actors forge through performance is palpable.
“I was balling,” Scott recalls.
“We had to do a Q&A afterwards.
I was really emotional.”
The way Haigh filmed the sex is itself a reflection of the broader intimacy he was looking to achieve.
“It’s about where you’re looking.
It’s all of those things.
“We were starting to get to know each other [as people], as well.
Beyond our preliminary friendship, it was like both of those experiences were coexisting.”
All of Us Strangersopens in theaters Dec. 22.
