Andrew SCOTT
On being Fleabag’s sexy priest
Were you surprised by the level of Fleabag’s success and popularity? Oh, the success of the show has been phenomenal. I’ve just come back from America, and everywhere we went, people just wanted to talk about it and tell us how much they loved it. That was really thrilling. Did you realise what an impact the interaction in the church between your “Sexy Priest” and Fleabag would have? We knew the scene was special. We shot it in a church in north London, and even just filming it there felt risky and dangerous – especially to be doing what we were doing there in the middle of the day. And that scene certainly fulfilled a fantasy for certain factions of the community – none of which I’m familiar with! What was it like when your Sexy Priest character notices Fleabag’s drifting off and engaging with the viewer? Oh, it was so much fun. We talked a lot about how that might work. In one episode, he looks slightly aware, and then he kind of looks at the camera and gets pissed off, and some people said they actually got a fright at that moment… It sent a shiver down the nation’s spines… [Laughs.] I think the reason it really works is that it means something else: it means that he really sees her, and something you suspect about them – which is that they’re in love with each other – is sort of confirmed by the fact, so it has a spiritual element to it. He’s the only one who notices what she’s doing. And that’s the nature of romantic love – two people who are able to see each other in a way that others don’t. It was exciting to represent that. What kind of TV do you watch? Do you ever watch reality TV? I was doing Hamlet last year and I got totally involved with Love Island. It’s extraordinary the effect it has. I hate the idea if you do Shakespeare, then you can’t watch Love Island – it just doesn’t work like that. There’s still a weird stigma about that kind of TV. n
‘Filming that church scene felt dangerous’