Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal talk All of Us Strangers’ sex scenes: ‘I don’t want to be there when my parents watch it!’

Andrew Scott has admitted he does not want to be with his parents when they watch his gay sex scenes in All of Us Strangers. 

Fleabag‘s ‘Hot Priest’ Scott and co-star Paul Mescal appeared on The Graham Norton Show on Friday (19 January) to talk about the critically-acclaimed film, which opens in UK cinemas on 26 January. 

Loosely based on Taichi Yamada’s 1987 Japanese novel Strangers, the film follows the pair as lonely lovers in London, who meet by chance in the tower block they both live in. As the relationship between Adam (Scott) and Harry (Mescal) grows, Adam conjures the ghosts of his parents – who died in a car crash 30 years earlier. 

Scott told the host the pair had to do an “awful lot of intimate scenes” – which he described as “tasteful” – with Norton joking that the sex scenes will help sell tickets. 

“With the Irish premiere, trying to allocate tickets to all the aunties and uncles is a tricky business. They have seen my bum before but there is a little more going on in this movie I would say,” Mescal said.

“I don’t want to be there when my parents watch it,” Scott admitted, before joking: “So don’t make me! Don’t make me Graham!”  

Normal People‘s Mescal has previously gushed about working with Scott on the “hot” but “tender” sex scenes in the film – including one moment where Mescal’s Harry licks semen off of Adam’s chest. 

“Films like this are an indication of a distance that we’ve traveled, but ultimately there’s quite a ways to go,” Mescal told Variety’s ‘Actors on Actors’ series. 

“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.”

The Irish star went on to say: “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’.” 

During the segment on The Graham Norton Show, Scott discussed the idea that while the movie will be enjoyed by viewers from all walks of life, gay audiences will get a “bit extra” from the film. 

He said there are “coming out stories” within the film and it is about “how to love, and love with courage”. 

“What we would like to be able to say to our parents and what we’d imagine we’d like our parents to say to us in that situation and how nuanced that situation is,” Scott explained. 

All of Us Strangers is due to open in the UK on 26 January.