Interview: Andrew Scott, Claire Foy & Jamie Bell on ‘All of Us Strangers’
Based on the book Strangers by Taichi Yamada, which won the 1987 Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize for best human-interest novel, All of Us Strangers is the latest film from writer and director Andrew Haigh, known for his films Weekend and 45 Years. Starring Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Claire Foy and Jamie Bell, the film follows Adam (Scott), who has a chance meeting with his mysterious neighbor Harry one night in his near-empty London apartment block. The encounter punctures the rhythm of his everyday life, and, as a relationship develops between them, Adam is preoccupied with memories of the past and finds himself drawn back to the suburban town where he grew up. He soon finds himself back in his childhood home, where his parents appear to be living just as they were on the day they died 30 years before.
Set against the backdrop of a bustling London, rarely seen as most of the film takes place in either Adam’s quiet apartment or his quaint childhood home, All of Us Strangers expertly explores potent themes of loneliness, isolation and the inherent desire for human connection through a multi-layered narrative, which Haigh has previously said was inspired by his own background, a creative process that he has previously described as “long and sometimes painful.” Scott firmly anchors the film with a stunning portrayal of grief and solitude that has made him a strong contender this awards season, while Mescal, Foy and Bell all turn in wonderful performances that help ground the film against its more supernatural plot elements.
Much like Haigh’s earlier films, All of Us Strangers is a thought-provoking, deeply affecting film that takes viewers on a profound journey of self-discovery, empathy, and the universal longing for connection. Scott says the prospect of working with Haigh is what made him want to sign on for the project. “My friend Tom Cullen was in [Haigh’s film] Weekend,” he says. “And I already knew who Andrew was and I had already seen his movies, so I already loved him. But I remember [Tom] saying that he had cherished the experience of working with Andrew so much, that he had constantly basically tried to recreate that experience but hasn’t been able to. So I was already excited going into reading [the screenplay] and it just delivered on every level. The opportunity to support Andrew in any way and being in his film was a real joy.”
“He’s such an extraordinary filmmaker,” he elaborates. “I read the script and it was incredibly moving. I had a Zoom call with him; I was away filming at the time, and he was so friendly and nice. I was expecting him to be quite auteur-ish but he’s not like that. He wears his art very lightly, like a lot of really great artists. It’s just a part of them. And it’s such a tender, beautiful film. The film is just so raw and there are these beautiful characters for actors to play. It’s very actor-friendly, so we were all just delighted to be playing our parts and that was why it was such a lovely experience.”
One of the film’s greatest strengths lies in the meticulously crafted chemistry between Scott, Foy and Bell. Foy and Bell, who play Adam’s parents, are a decade younger than Scott, a dynamic that could have easily come across as hammy and disingenuous in any other actors’ and filmmakers’ hands. However, each individual performance is portrayed with depth and authenticity, allowing the audience to not only accept the dynamic, no questions asked, but also empathize with the characters’ struggles and triumphs throughout the course of the film. When asked if they there was any sort of prep they undertook in order to embody that dynamic, they respond in the negative. “That’s what’s so surprising about it,” exclaims Bell. “We just kind of started doing it. The prep was just kind of getting on with it.”
“We all had separate discussions with Andrew,” says Bell of their process leading up to production of the film. “I think we knew how personal [this film] was to him. He afforded us the space to bring bits of ourselves to it and embellish them slightly, but the text was so specific and so well-observed that you wanted to keep the purity of it because it was all there on the page. But I think even he had some hesitation about the concept or how this would all work out, what this would look like. Are people really going to take that leap of faith and believe that we are Andrew’s parents? And it just clicked really quickly on day one; I’m his dad and Claire’s his mom, and that was that. It was never really discussed, and all the spectral elements of it, of us being ghosts and the rules of all that stuff, that part of the story, we were kind of disinterested in. It wasn’t really important to what the film is really about.”
While the heart of the film is undoubtedly the heartwarming dynamic between Adam and his parents, its soul lies within the relationship between him and Harry, a loner who’s one of the very few people who also live in Adam’s apartment complex. Mescal, who plays Harry, turns in a sensitive, searing performance as a misguided young man struggling with his identity and future. One of the highlights of the film is the intoxicating chemistry between Scott and Mescal, who light up the screen whenever they share scenes together. “It was really a lovely experience,” says Scott of working with Mescal. “The stuff that I had to do with Claire and Jamie was incredibly intense. The stuff that you have to do, the places that you have to go, it was like a little microcosm of a whole childhood you go through. You share scenes together and then you have to say goodbye to them, and then you’re like, ‘Oh my God, what’s the next stage of this film going to be like?'”
“But actually, in a way, it was a little bit of a relief to play sort of falling in love and connecting with somebody,” explains Scott. “And obviously, there’s heavy parts to that as well. But yeah, it’s a different form of chemistry, really, and I felt really connected to both sides of it. Paul is such an extraordinary, hard-working, soulful colleague. I think that it’s a real actor-led film and I’m so happy to have done it with with these actors. I really, really think that the film doesn’t survive without those kinds of relationships working.”
While the film is set in modern times, Adam’s parents appear just as they were when they passed away, plucked straight out of the ’80s, period-accurate outfits, big hair, mustache and all. “I never would’ve gotten a perm in the ’80s,” says Foy. “I never would have done that to myself. I mean, maybe I would have, I don’t know! I found the whole thing so nostalgic and time travel-y weird because it wasn’t like you could go to so many different shops and express your personality by what you have in your house. Everyone had the same thing. It was like, ‘We had that, we had that,’ like the sofas and that the fireplace. So much stuff was just so reminiscent for me of so much, and then obviously that bled into the character I was playing; she was so, so many of my aunts, and things like that. I feel like the ’80s would not have been my era, fashion and makeup-wise!”
Bell, on the other hand, felt more at home with the ’80s aesthetic. “I mean, I like a mustache,” he says. “My wife doesn’t like a mustache. I kept it for weeks after the film because I thought it looked quite good. But my wife was like, ‘Get rid of it fast!’ But what was so great about the film was that everyone was bringing something personal to it. Crew members, as well as the makeup and hair department, the costume department… They were kind of referencing relatives of theirs, their uncles, people who had passed on… So everyone was so willing to share and that was what was so great about it.”
Aside from the technical aspects of the film, All of Us Strangers also serves as a catalyst for introspection and dialogue, prompting viewers to question the nature of their own relationships and the impact they have on those around them. By highlighting the complexity of humanity and how grief can cause a ripple effect that affects the rest of our lives, the film encourages empathy and understanding, reminding us that despite our differences, we are all part of the same tapestry of existence, an element that is also heightened by intimate nature of the film. “It was filmed in Andrew [Haigh’s] childhood home,” reveals Scott. “So it was incredibly personal. I remember going into the bedroom, Adam’s bedroom, his bedroom, and just sending pictures to my sister of all the toys and stickers and everything else because it reminded me of our own childhood.”
All of Us Strangers will be released in select theaters this Friday, December 22.