All Us Of Strangers might be one of the most moving films of the last decade. The film, which is based on the 1987 novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada, follows a middle aged man named Adam who has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbour, which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life.
As a new 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.
To celebrate the release of the movie this weekend, we sat down with director Andrew Haigh to learn more about the making of All Us Of Strangers...
So, congratulations! I’m a big fan of your work including Looking and Weekend. In fact, I’ve indoctrinated so many people to Weekend, so I was very excited for this film.
Oh, thank you!
My first question is, I feel like there’s so many amazing elements to this movie, but one thing that really stands out is Andrew Scott’s performance. How did you go about casting him and what was it like working with him?
The minute I finished writing – I didn’t think about anybody as I was writing, I never do normally – I thought about Andrew. He was the first person we went to and he was the first person I really thought of. My gut said he would make sense as the character of Adam. You know, he’s of a certain age, and he understands growing up in that time, so that helps, but he’s also such a good actor. We obviously wanted that at the same time – someone who’s a really, really good actor and also really understands the role. Those two things were in perfect alignment with Andrew.
That definitely shines through. And did you learn anything interesting about your main cast from working with them? Any fun facts about Andrew, Paul, Claire or Jamie?
It’s funny, when you’re working on a film you definitely get to know each other in a very strange way. It’s an intense working period, and in your conversations with each other about character and such, some really personal stuff comes our – stuff about my life, stuff about Andrew’s life and everyone’s, really. You sort of get close, but I don’t know how well I know them as such, I just know a lot about elements of their lives.
Did any of them have any weird habits on set or anything?
Well, everybody’s got strange habits. That’s certainly not something I’ll share, and hopefully, they would never talk about my weird habits either! I feel more like a therapist on set sometimes, and the job is to work out when to step in and when to say something or not.
Speaking of “personal stuff”, was any part of Adam’s relationship with his parents based on your own experiences?
It’s less based upon my own experiences with my parents, although some of it is, and more about a generation of gay people who were coming into their sexuality at a certain time in the ’80s and ’90s. Most of us, if not all of us, experienced a similar feeling growing up in a very complicated time when it really was quite tough to be gay, and it certainly wasn’t easy to come out to anybody, let alone your parents. We’re talking about, you know, the height of AIDS and section 28 and homophobia being incredibly rife in the UK. It was a rough time for a lot of people.
I think it’s so different now, it’s changed so dramatically, but for a generation of people, we still remember what that felt like, it’s still there. We still feel it. Sometimes it can re-emerge and you feel suddenly triggered by something. So rather than it being like an autobiographical experience of me coming out to my parents, it’s about feeling what it was like to be gay at that time.
Absolutely. I mean, I’m a slightly later generation, but I think you’ve done such a good job of encoding that. The movie is also based on the book, of course, but the respective plots are very different. How and why did you diverge away from the plot of the novel?
I loved this idea of meeting your parents again, which is in the novel, but then it takes a very different direction. It turns into more of a traditional ghost story. The Harry character was not only a demonic spirit in the original story, but also a woman, so that was quite a fundamental shift. So it’s now a queer relationship, which changes how Adam relates to his family, I think. That central idea of going backwards in time in order to move forward is definitely still there though, which is what I think the novel is about.
I feel like you could’ve “gotten away with” not even mentioning the book, because they truly are so different. Did that ever cross your mind?
It’s funny, when I read the book again recently – actually, just before I started doing all this press – I realised that while so much is different, the story itself is very personal to that writer, he really made it his own, and in a similar way I did that with this film. I took his book and made it personal to me, but I’m still taking the core of what he did in that book. I feel like that can be the joy of adaptation. You take the truth of the original thing and you throw it up in the air and remix it and re-make it.
One thing I want to ask you about is the recent BAFTA nominations. The film has been nominated in quite a few categories, including casting, but Andrew didn’t received a nomination for Leading Actor. What are your thoughts on that?
I mean, I’m very sad and heartbroken for him. I think it’s tough. Like, clearly, all of the other nominations would not have happened if Andrew hadn’t been incredible in the film. It wouldn’t be nominated for a screenplay nomination if Andrew hadn’t been good. I wish he’d been nominated and it’s sad for us. But all of the nominations would not have existed without him, and it doesn’t change his performance, which I think is brilliant.
So many of the scenes are so intense to watch, which scene was most difficult for you to write or direct?
I guess the scenes with Adam’s parents – the ones back in the house when he speaks to his mum and his dad – they took a long time to write and get the tone right on. We had to make sure you weren’t hating his mum and dad in those situations and that you could sort of understand where they were coming from, but you could also understand the pain that was being resurrected in Adam at the same time.
So there was a lot going on and they weren’t easy scenes to shoot. They weren’t easy to watch either! When I was editing them, they were very challenging to watch. Obviously, it’s shot in my old house. So–
I’m sorry, it’s shot in your old house?
Yes, that’s my old house that I lived in when I was a kid. I haven’t lived there for 40 years. So it’s sort of like I’m watching, let’s say the scene of Adam and his dad in what was our old front room, they’re around the Christmas tree where we used to put our Christmas tree up. So there’s a lot of sort of strangeness within that for me.
Did you just rock up to the house and go, “do you mind if I film here?”
Yeah, pretty much.
That’s amazing. Well, speaking of that, are there any other sort of Easter eggs or random details in the movie that you left in hoping people would notice?
There’s always things. It’s more things from my personal life that only people I know will recognise, and I’m sure will mean nothing to other people, which is fine by me! I like the fact that there’s bits of me in there that people can decide whether or not are me.
I guess something like The Whitgift Centre would be one of those things, no? I actually used to live near there with an ex-boyfriend and we went over a few times. Why did you want to include that place and do you hope there’s an increase in visitation there after the film comes out?
I lived nearby when I was a kid and we would go there on the weekends. It felt like a glamorous place to go in the ’70s and ’80s, it was kind of like a version of the future. It felt so British that we live in these little places and the centres of our lives become these things that mean nothing in the scale of anything to anybody. The Whitgift Centre is not some glamorous location, but for Adam, as a kid, he loves going. Kids love going to weird places and I think those places become quite important in our lives. Even if it’s just a place you go on the weekend with your family.
At the start of the movie, I remember Andrew gets his kit off a lot – was that just because you wanted to see Andrew Scott naked? Because fair enough.
That’s funny. I think they both get more naked in the beginning of the film and then less naked later on. That makes sense in the scope of their relationship. Their intimacy develops throughout the story and sometimes that involves sexual intimacy, which usually you are naked for! But as they go on, while that’s still a part of their relationship, there’s also everything else that’s happening. So I feel like it sort of makes sense that they’re physically naked first, before they become emotionally naked.
Do you have a shot or scene you’re particularly proud of?
I kind of feel like every scene links to the next one, so all of them speak to the same kind of thing. I do like the scene when he gets in bed with his mum and talks to her, and then he leans over and his dad’s there. It’s all one shot, which is kind of nice, and the acting is so beautiful. It also goes from a little bit silly and humorous to being very heartfelt and sad, so I like how that scene develops, too.
I also like the first time that Adam is walking through the park and sees his dad. He feels him appear behind him, and turns around like they’re cruising or something. It’s sort of mysterious and strange and odd, kind of like you’re drifting off into a dream.
I completely agree. I mean, so much of it stuck in my head, but for some reason that bit really did. Because you do think it’s going to be one thing, and then it’s completely different. Now, I feel like I know what you’re going to say here, but what do you think is happening when Adam sees his parents? Is it really happening? Is he imagining it, or is it some sort of mental break?
I think you can read it in whatever way you want to. They could be actual ghosts that have reappeared, it could all be in his imagination. I mean, for me, I actually don’t know how much I care about what is the specific reality. All I know is that Adam has longed for this encounter so much that it has been brought into the ether, and whether it’s all in his mind or not, the important thing is that he’s desired this into existence.
That’s roughly what I thought you might say! In your career, you’ve worked with quite a few openly gay actors on some very queer-centric material. What’s your view on the debate about straight actors playing gay roles?
Look, I completely understand the debate; I think about the debate long and hard. I’d say it’s a very complicated argument. There are times when, absolutely, I think you should cast a gay actor in a gay role. I also think trans characters should be played by trans people. in those roles. I guess I’m not so dogmatic that it means it always has to be like that for gay roles. You just have to understand what the role is, and it makes a difference if the writer is gay or the director is gay. There’s a lot of gay people involved in the making of this film, for instance.
For Adam, I knew I wanted a gay actor to play it. There’s too much nuance and there’s too much stuff in there that I wanted to get across. But it’s not a hard-and-fast rule, it’s about what’s right for the role. Sometimes, it’s definitely right to cast a gay actor as a gay character, sometimes I think it’s less important.
Finally, I’d love to know what your favourite film of the moment is?
Probably Anatomy of a Fall. I loved Sandra Hüller’s performance in that, I think that’ll go down in history as one of the greatest ever.