Paul Mescal opens up about ‘going down’ on Andrew Scott in ‘All of Us Strangers’

Paul Mescal is opening up about what he thinks was the most “illicit” moment in All of Us Strangers — and the answer might surprise you.

Mescal, Andrew Scott, and filmmaker Andrew Haigh have been busy promoting the film, which follows Adam (Scott) as he enters into a relationship with a younger neighbor (Mescal) while dealing with the oddity of discovering his long-deceased parents in his childhood home as if they were still the same ages as when they died.

It’s a surreal exploration of grief and the loneliness of growing up queer in the 1980s, things the creative team discussed at length in a recent interview with Dazed.

One of the interesting points Mescal touched on during that conversation was how the intimacy of the moments following sex scenes can be so much more difficult to play as an actor—something undoubtedly particularly true when those moments are so pivotal to the theme.

“You’re both inhabiting a physical language — that distinct feeling of lying on a bed and talking to somebody you love after having sex,” he said. “The tenderness required in your quality of touch is something you can’t really block and write. It’s not like you’re going to touch his hand like this at this particular moment. It just doesn’t work like that.”

Mescal also talked about an oral sex scene between his character, Harry, and Adam—and how it again wasn’t the sex act itself that ultimately struck a chord when he watched the final film.

“When I saw it for the first time in the audience, I asked Andrew if he remembered me [looking at him like that],” he said. “The most illicit moment is not actually the sex, but my eyes looking up to Andrew when I’m about to go down on him.”

In select theaters December 22. From director Andrew Haigh. One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, …

ALL OF US STRANGERS | “Do I Scare You” Clip | Searchlight Pictures

Considering we’re seeing a decline in sex scenes in movies—and Gen Z apparently wants to see even less—hearing actors talk about why those intimate moments (and the intrinsically linked moments both before and after them) are important is refreshing, and hopefully thought-provoking for some naysayers as well.

All of Us Strangers is currently playing in theaters.

www.youtube.com

All of Us Strangers | Official Trailer | Searchlight Pictures