Paul Mescal can’t stop talking about his ‘sexy and healing’ sex scenes with Andrew Scott

Oscar-nominated Aftersun actor Paul Mescal can’t and won’t stop talking about his sex scenes with Andrew Scott in upcoming romance film All of Us Strangers.

The critically-acclaimed All of Us Strangers, which has already won nine awards despite not arriving in UK cinemas until 26 January, follows Mescal and Scott as lonely lovers in London.

Fleabag‘s “Hot priest” Scott plays Adam, a depressed writer who meets Harry (Mescall), one of the only other residents in their London tower block, in a chance encounter.

As Adam travels back to his childhood home in Kent, he sees that his parents, played by Jamie Bell and Claire Foy, appear to still be living there. Except, they both died when he was young.

His relationship with Harry deepens as he flits between London and his old family home, and eventually he emotionally comes out to his parents, before accepting that he has to let them go.

While the film is a tear-jerking exploration of the power of love, it’s also insanely hot, with a fair few sex scenes. In one particularly passionate scene, Paul Mescal licks semen off of Andrew Scott’s chest.

Speaking to May December actress Natalie Portman as part of Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, Mescal, 27, revealed that playing Scott’s lover in the film is one of the “greatest honours” of his career.

“To play love is such a great privilege, I think. And to do it with Andrew Scott, who’s the king of playing love. It’s just innate in his being both as an actor and as a human,” Mescal gushed.

“Going into scenes with him is one of the greatest honours of my career to date.”

Reflecting specifically on the intimate scenes between the pair, Portman praised All of Us Strangers for bringing “hot” and “tender” queer sex to our screens, but questioned why gay sex acts are still rarely shown in films.

“Films like this are an indication of a distance that we’ve traveled, but ultimately there’s quite a ways to go,” Mescal responded.

“All I can talk about is my experience with filming those scenes. Andrew Scott’s character, Adam, who is in his mid-40s, has a difficult relationship to sex.

“My character serves as a safe landing space for him to re-explore his sexuality. I think sex in film, when it can be healing and sexy at the same time, that’s when it’s at its best.”

He added: “I don’t know about you, but I’ve been lucky that I haven’t been in a sex scene in a film where I think, “I don’t know why this is here”.”

While both Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal are focussed on promoting All of Us Strangers right now, they’ve also both lined up their next big projects.

Mescal will star alongside the internet’s other boyfriend Pedro Pascal in Gladiator 2, while Scott is heading to Netflix for Ripley, a TV series based on psychological thriller novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley.

All of Us Strangers lands in cinemas in the US on 22 December, and in the UK on 26 January.