Just How Close Did Andrew Scott And Paul Mescal Get While Filming 'All Of Us' Strangers?

The chemistry between Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal in All of Us Strangers is palpable even from the glimpses we've gotten into the film, and as its premiere grows closer, we're finding out more and more about how that bond came to be.

During an awards-season Q&A for the American Film Institute, when director Andrew Haigh was asked about what he encouraged them to do to cultivate the chemistry, he jokingly said, “Yeah, I just made them have sex with each other and was just watching. It was a bit awkward, but it was good.”

ALL OF US STRANGERS Q&A with Andrew Haigh | AFI Fest 2023 www.youtube.com

In seriousness, he said the three of them went to a concert together in London, where Haigh says the two actors completely ignored him for the day and hit it off while leaving him in the dust.

In response to the interview, Mescal and Scott told Entertainment Weekly that wasn’t exactly how it went down, with Scott joking it was “a little bit of hyperbolic directorial license” and they needed “to have a word with him.”

Of course, fans already lost it when Mescal attended Scott’s birthday party, and while they admitted they knew each other “a little bit” before All of Us Strangers, it wasn’t “as well as we know each other now.”

“We know everything,” said Scott. “The whole kit and caboodle!”

Their connection, is, yes, physical, but also explores a deeply emotional bond that even took the actors by surprise when they attended their first public screening in Los Angeles earlier this week.

“I was balling,” said Scott. “We had to do a Q&A afterwards. It was really emotional.”

Haigh intended for the sex scenes be a reflection of the broader intimacy he wanted depict. “It’s about being vulnerable and then allowing yourself to feel a little bit fear and then tense up and be nervous and awkward and then let the sexuality of it override you.”

Scott agreed, saying, “To play being in love or falling in love with someone, it’s the best, completely wonderful thing to do. 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 Strangers makes its official debut in theaters on December 22.