Everything you need to know about gay icon Andrew Scott

Dublin-native Andrew Scott is making headlines at the moment after starring in All of Us Strangers with Paul Mescal.

The film, which is inspired by the 1987 novel Strangers by Japanese author Taichi Yamada, explores the queer relationship between Andrew Scott’s character Adam and Paul Mescal’s character Harry.

As Adam and Harry’s relationship intensifies, the former visits his childhood home in Croydon and comes out to his parents, played by Claire Foy and Jamie Belle – the twist is his parents died 30 years earlier.

Speaking exclusively to PinkNews on the red carpet at a UK screening of All of Us Strangers ahead of its release on Friday (26 January), Andrew Scott reflected on the importance of seeing queer sex represented.

As there’s an appetite for all things Andrew Scott at the moment (and rightfully so), we thought it would be a good time to take a look at his LGBTQ+ story so far.

When did Andrew Scott come out?

Scott first commented on his sexuality in 2013 in an interview with The Independent while promoting a BBC Two drama titled Legacy.

“Mercifully, these days people don’t see being gay as a character flaw. But nor is it a virtue, like kindness. Or a talent, like playing the banjo. It’s just a fact. Of course, it’s part of my make-up, but I don’t want to trade on it,” he said.

He recently told GQ that he was “encouraged by people in the industry” to keep his sexuality a secret.

“I understand why they gave that advice but I’m also glad that I eventually ignored it,” Scott said.

Scott started out on stage

Scott was a stage actor in Dublin before moving on to the world of film and TV, making his debut in the Irish drama Korea, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

He had small roles in Saving Private Ryan, Nora, and Dead Bodies, plus a number of other movies.

Scott became a ‘gay icon’ after appearing as James Moriarty in BBC’s Sherlock, sparking countless memes and fanfiction about the potential queer relationship between his character and the titular character played Benedict Cumberbatch.

In 2014, Scott appeared in Pride, a movie honouring the LGBTQ+ activists that raised money to help families affected by the 1984 miner’s strike.

More recently, many will recognise Scott from appearing as the ‘Hot Priest’ in Fleabag as well as playing Colonel John Parry in His Dark Materials, a BBC adaptation of the popular Phillip Pullman book series.

Scott relied on his own pain when filming All of Us Strangers

Homosexuality was illegal in Ireland until Scott turned 16 and he had to grapple with his sexuality and the fear he had in coming out. Scott’s complicated feelings about being gay was something he brought to set every day when filming All of Us Strangers.

He told GQ that he would walk around director Andrew Haigh’s childhood home, the set for Adam’s parents home in the film, and look at all the magazines that he himself had grown up with. Haigh told GQ that he could see Scott revisiting his past: “It’s so interesting watching someone react to something because you can see on their face they’ve been dragged back. It’s like time travel.”

Scott added: “I think that’s maybe why this feels so gratifying and cathartic. Because I did have to bring so much of my own pain into it.”

Scott and Mescal previously told Pink News that an uptick in the number of queer sex scenes in film and TV, including in All of Us Strangers, is “wonderful”.

Scott said: “What’s going to help bring the world forward is just to have representation in that sense. I always say [that] as a queer person, seeing straight relationships constantly and almost exclusively, it hasn’t made me disgusted to look at them. I just go, ‘there you go’.”

Though Mescal is straight, the two actors have great chemistry according to Haigh.

“It was clear to me that [Scott and Mescal] liked each other liked each other a lot as actors, as people. The characters are falling in love, so the actors know how to generate chemistry.”

“They clearly have amazing chemistry, and they’re really good friends now, and they care and love for each other. So, something magical happened. I’m very grateful for that,” Haigh told Sky News.

What will Scott be seen in next?

Scott will soon be starring in new Netflix thriller Ripley, an eight-part series based on Patricia Highsmith’s best-selling Tom Ripley novels.

The story follows a con artist who is hired by a wealthy man to get the man’s son to return home from Italy, when everything goes wrong and descends into fraud and murder.

Scott plays the titular character Tom Ripley, alongside Johnny Flynn and Dakota Fanning. The series premieres on Netflix on April 4, 2024.

He is also expected to appear in an upcoming action comedy film with Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz titled Back in Action. There is no release date for the film at the time of writing.

Andrew Scott husband?

Many people (probably people who are quite hopeful that Andrew Scott is still on the market) have been Googling whether the Fleabag star has a husband or partner.

While Andrew Scott keeps his personal life very private, according to Hello Magazine– it’s thought that he is currently single after splitting from his long-term partner, writer Stephen Beresford, in 2019. 

He’s previously appeared on the How to Fail podcast speaking about relationships in January 2020, and said: “You learn from people. It’s not about the length of time you spend with somebody. My life is different now. I feel like my attitude towards relationships and my attitude towards myself and sexuality and all that stuff has changed, and that came about from having the courage to be on my own for a bit, quite a scary thing to do.