In 2010, Sherlock Holmes found on his path a new avatar of Professor Moriarty, evil genius. In the series Sherlock, Conan Doyle’s paranoid soldier had transformed into an attractive and perverse young man, played by a 36-year-old actor, accustomed to London theater stages, and second or third roles, Andrew Scott.
Director Andrew Haigh remembers this appearance: “I said to myself, this is a very interesting actor. When he speaks, you see the thoughts forming on his face. » This face with fine features, which can be as vulnerable as they are threatening, has become familiar: we saw Andrew Scott in hot priest (sexy priest) in the second season of Fleabag, as an honest officer in 1917by Sam Mendes, we will soon find him as Tom Ripley, in a series based on the misdeeds of the character of Patricia Highsmith, already played by Alain Delon, Dennis Hopper, Matt Damon and John Malkovich.
At the beginning of December 2023, the two Andrews, Scott and Haigh, are in London, to talk about Without ever knowing usa ghost film, a celebration of desire, a meditation on the permanence of memory and love, in which Scott plays his first major leading role, that of Adam, a solitary writer.
“For certain characters, we don’t need ornamentationhe said of Adam. I played a play, Sea Wall, by Simon Stevens, and I remember being convinced that I wanted to keep my accent [Andrew Scott est né et a grandi à Dublin], my clothes. For this film too, I wanted to reveal who I am more than transform myself into someone else. »
“Return to childhood”
Andrew Haigh’s screenplay requires its lead performer to embark on a magical quest for the past that allows him to find his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) as they were when he was 12 years old and a history of violent and carnal love with Harry, a young Dionysian man (Paul Mescal).
“I had to return to childhood without being childish, explains the actor. It was physical. Not that it’s a physical performance, but I believe that a child with his parents is sensual, tactile. This is the throughline of this character. This is someone no one has touched in a long time. He wants to find his place between his parents, in their bed. We shot all these family sequences first, in the house where Andrew Haigh grew up, which served as a foundation for the scenes between Adam and Harry. »
An even more solid foundation, explains the director: “We’re about the same age, me 50, him 47, we both grew up in the 1980s, we’re both gay. We both know what existence was like at that time. » Haigh has made no secret of his desire to give the role of Adam to a gay actor, an option that Scott approves of but qualifies: “Ideally, all roles should be open to all, but the playing field is sloping. Furthermore, we must always take into account the specificity of each project. For this one, there were other gay actors, I hope Andrew also chose me for reasons other than my sexual orientation. »
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