Andrew Scott is not particularly interested in playing an antagonist similar to his James Bond villain C from 2015’s “Spectre,” starring Daniel Craig. In a recent interview with British GQ, the actor expressed his desire to continue playing more nuanced roles.
“If I’m honest, it’s not a territory that I feel like I would want to go over again. Now I know who I am a little bit more, I feel like the work that I’m just interested in doing is more in the grey areas,” Scott said. “I suppose it’s just that I didn’t think… I just maybe wasn’t that good in it.”
Scott portrayed new MI5 boss Max Denbigh, condenamed C, in the Sam Mendes-directed “Spectre.” While Variety‘s “Spectre” review called the film a “particular treat for 007 nerds,” others were more critical of the 24th installment in the British spy franchise. Pierce Brosnan, who played the super-spy in four films from 1995 to 2002, said that “Spectre” didn’t quite feel like a Bond film in a 2015 interview.
“I was looking forward to it enormously,” said Brosnan. “I thought it was too long. The story was kind of weak — it could have been condensed. It kind of went on too long. It really did.”
While several of Scott’s past projects have involved him playing supporting roles to bigger stars like Craig, Benedict Cumberbatch in “Sherlock” and Phoebe Waller-Bridge in “Fleabag,” he takes center stage in Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers,” premiering Dec. 22. The film follows Scott’s Adam as he enters a relationship with Harry, portrayed by Paul Mescal. Switching between reality and the supernatural, Adam returns to his childhood home to find that his parents alive and well, despite their supposed deaths when he was 12.
Scott discussed how filming “All of Us Strangers” was “gratifying and cathartic” because he revisited several of his own experiences. Specifically, in the scene where Adam comes out to his family, Scott said he found himself reflecting on his own experience coming out to his parents.
“I had a very happy childhood,” Scott said. “But there’s an inevitable pain that you have to go through when you have to take a risk telling your family something about yourself. I really do think that that is a gift now, because to have to risk everything, and for your family and friends to say ‘we accept you no matter what,’ that’s a real feeling of love that you get confirmed at a very young age, that actually some people who aren’t queer don’t get. I mean, some queer people aren’t so lucky.”