Culture

All of Us Strangers: Andrew Scott celebrates birthday with Paul Mescal at gay bar

By Alice Morey

24th October 2023

The FOMO is real! Paul Mescal has been spotted in a gay bar alongside All of Us Strangers co-star Andrew Scott.

In pictures shared online, you can see the pair alongside actor Fionn O’Shea, celebrating Scott’s 47th birthday at Spain’s LaLupe gay bar.

Scott is seen getting in the party spirit wearing a white tank top, showing off his muscular arm and enjoying shots.

Clearly the FOMO is spreading with one fan commenting: “I should have been at the bar celebrating with them, life is unfair.”

Yet, there is one thing we are not missing out on. The wait is nearly over to see the duo in the upcoming British romance fantasy All of Us Strangers, written and directed by Andrew Haigh. He previously received acclaim for Weekend (2011) and 45 Years (2015), as well as his work on Looking (2014-2015).

Based on the novel Strangers by Japanese novelist Taichi Yamada, All of Us Strangers follows Adam, a screenwriter (Scott) who is pulled back into his childhood home “where he discovers that his long-dead parents are both living and look the same age as the day they died over 30 years ago”.

At the same time, Adam falls in love with his “mysterious” neighbour Harry (Mescal).

Also starring Claire Foy and Jamie Bell as Adam’s parents, the film has received universal critical acclaim – it currently holds a 98% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 92/100 on Metacritic.

The “chemistry” between Mescal and Scott is undeniable and something Haigh saw straight away in the casting process. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Haigh said there was a connection “literally the second I saw them together,” before teasing the film’s intimate scenes: “Both of them were pretty fearless. There was no sense of them being afraid of approaching those scenes. They knew how important they were.”

He added: “I’ve been more objective in how I’ve shot sex scenes in the past. Here, I really wanted to feel the subjective nature of having sex and what it feels like—the nervousness and the excitement and the physical sensation of being touched by someone else, and what that does to you.”

Mescal is best known for his breakout role in Normal People, which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and a BAFTA TV Award. He also received an Academy Award nomination for his performance in the 2022 coming-of-age drama Aftersun.

Scott, a fellow BAFTA winner, is known to audiences for television shows such as Sherlock (2010-2017) and Fleabag (2019), in addition to films such as Pride (2014), Spectre (2015) and Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016).

Watch the full trailer below.

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