Andrew Scott opens London festival with Elsinore and defends queer joy and hard history
Andrew Scott opened the 70th BFI London Film Festival with Elsinore on Wednesday night, then told a London audience that queer film and television need both celebration and hard history.
Scott returned to BFI Southbank on Thursday afternoon for a career-spanning Screen Talk, a day after the opening gala, The Hollywood Reporter reported. He used the session to talk about joy, stigma and why he wanted to tell one painful true story from the 1980s.
Elsinore follows actor Ian Charleson during his final weeks playing Hamlet at London's National Theatre in 1989, before his death from AIDS. The film is directed by Simon Stone and written by Stephen Beresford, with Scott also credited as a producer.
Scott was joined on the opening red carpet by co-stars Olivia Colman, Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn and Luke Thompson, alongside Joe Locke. The gala took place at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall on 7 October, according to the BFI's earlier festival announcement.
On stage, Scott said he welcomes joyful queer stories. He named Heartstopper, Red, White, and Royal Blue and Heated Rivalry, the latter a gay hockey romance series on HBO Max. He said there is room for romance, comedy and lightness.
He also said it troubles him that some viewers do not want to revisit painful queer history, including the AIDS crisis. The shame of that period, he said, lies with the governments that ignored it and with stigma and prejudice in society, not with gay people themselves.
The role carries a personal link. Scott previously played Hamlet for 150 shows at London's Almeida Theatre in 2017. Charleson, a Scottish actor known for Chariots of Fire, played the same role at the National while seriously ill.
For general audiences, this means two threads in one festival appearance. One is entertainment now. The other is memory.
Scott also addressed early awards talk for his performance as Charleson during the opening-night coverage, Deadline reported. Elsinore, a 104-minute UK production, is scheduled for release in cinemas from 29 January 2027, according to a National Theatre announcement.
