{"id":2351,"date":"2026-05-26T18:17:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/26\/andrew-scott-busy-boy-on-sparring-with-brendan-fraser-crashing-the-comeback-and-the-greatest-acting-challenge-of-his-career\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T18:17:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:17:00","slug":"andrew-scott-busy-boy-on-sparring-with-brendan-fraser-crashing-the-comeback-and-the-greatest-acting-challenge-of-his-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/26\/andrew-scott-busy-boy-on-sparring-with-brendan-fraser-crashing-the-comeback-and-the-greatest-acting-challenge-of-his-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Scott, \u201cBusy Boy\u201d: On Sparring With Brendan Fraser, Crashing \u2018The Comeback\u2019 and the Greatest Acting Challenge of His Career"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\tOne of the first film roles Andrew Scott<\/a> ever played, nearly 30 years ago, was \u201cSoldier on the Beach\u201d in Saving Private Ryan<\/a><\/em>. He appeared in the Steven Spielberg<\/a> drama\u2019s legendary opening sequence, set during the Normandy Invasion at Omaha Beach on D-Day. \u201cI had one line or something, and Tom Hanks rolled over me, and I was very happy to be there,\u201d Scott recalls with a laugh. \u201cIt was an extraordinary thing \u2014 it was my first time being on a set of that enormity, and I feel very proud that I got to be a tiny part of that. It\u2019s a sequence that\u2019s gone down in movie history.\u201d\u00a0 \t<\/p>\n

\tScott has built an impressive career since, between his Olivier-winning stage work and acclaimed performances across film and TV. But it\u2019s something of a full-circle moment to see him back in a D-Day-set film, only this time as the main attraction: In Pressure <\/em>(in theaters Friday), Scott portrays James Stagg, a meteorologist in the Royal Air Force called in to assess weather patterns for the planned Allied invasion of Europe \u2014 and the man ultimately responsible for convincing General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser<\/a>) to move the date by a day, amid significant pushback. For all the World War II dramatizations out there, it\u2019s a true, fresh, surprisingly untold story.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\tScott\u2019s prickly, tightly controlled performance comes amid an impressive run for the Irish native, who took home the supporting-actor award out of the Berlin Film Festival last year for Richard Linklater\u2019s Blue Moon <\/em>and earned Golden Globe and Emmy nominations the year prior for his searing turn in Netflix\u2019s Ripley<\/em>. This is a very different character from those roles, with Stagg committed to his duty and his expertise \u2014 uninterested in emitting any kind of sugarcoating or warmth.\u00a0 \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI felt like I understood him \u2014 he had the professionalism to push the personal to one side. A lot of great men with great humility, that\u2019s what they\u2019re able to do,\u201d Scott says. \u201cStagg doesn\u2019t immediately make you feel comfortable, and that was important to me. I found that actually very, very, very challenging. It made me feel for him more rather than less.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tPressure <\/em>is directed by Hotel Mumbai<\/em>\u2019s Anthony Maras, and as adapted with David Haig from the latter\u2019s stage play, it\u2019s structured as a sharp ticking-clock thriller while surprisingly light on its feet with witty dialogue. Stagg and his counterpart, the American meteorologist Irving P. Krick (Chris Messina), present conflicting readings to Eisenhower and his team, with the difference between being right and wrong of enormous consequence \u2014 even as they\u2019re ultimately, simply discussing weather patterns and rain forecasts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe weather is one of the most powerful influences over our lives \u2014 what we wear, where we go on holiday, how we work, how we instigate massive war efforts, huge political sports, events, concerts, just right down to what you\u2019re going to do for your birthday barbecue. We look out constantly,\u201d Scott says. \u201cIt\u2019s almost arrogant to assume that the weather is something that we can disregard\u2026. Nature is the biggest ruler of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tBrendan Fraser and Andrew Scott in Pressure<\/em>.<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlex Bailey\/Focus Features\/ STUDIOCANAL<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tIndeed, talking to Scott on an early May afternoon, more than a year since he shot Pressure<\/em>, it\u2019s clear how strongly the topic remains top of mind. In the film, he describes incredibly complex meteorological readings in a way that is both accurate to the historical scenario and digestible for an audience. He carries the weight of his forecast playing a part in the future of the world order. Most fascinatingly, he embodies Pressure<\/em>\u2019s punny title by tracing Stagg\u2019s slow-burn emotional arc as if its own volatile weather system. His most wrenching scene, when Stagg receives a devastating personal call but cannot react amid the intense geopolitical stakes, captured this tension. \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI wanted it to correspond to barometric pressure \u2014 where with the pressure that he\u2019s feeling and all the other characters are feeling, the more you expel the bigger it gets,\u201d Scott says. \u201cIt\u2019s an actor\u2019s thing, isn\u2019t it, to be able to try and convey that feeling, but without trying to express too much emotion? That\u2019s what the name of the game was: What do I do here under this enormously pressurized situation?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHe adds, \u201cIn order to enjoy the film, you have to know exactly what psychological stage Stagg is at because he\u2019s the person that we trust. He\u2019s kind of like the James Cagney character \u2014 he\u2019s us, in some ways.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t**<\/p>\n

\tScott says he\u2019s in London \u201cbetween gigs\u201d as we chat, planning to come to the U.S. for Pressure <\/em>press with a few more projects on the horizon, including the new film from Oscar winner Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall<\/em>). \u201cI\u2019m a busy boy at the moment, for sure,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel it\u2019s definitely time to regroup and have the sand between my toes for a little while and just make sure that the work life balance is working and all that kind of stuff\u2026. I definitely need a little break this summer. You want to do your best job and you don\u2019t want to make yourself sick. That\u2019s my problem.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tYou wouldn\u2019t know the work was wearing on him. This past spring, Scott was a slithery wonder in the new season of The Comeback<\/a><\/em> as the tech-boosting network head who commissions a new sitcom for Valerie Cherish (Lisa Kudrow<\/a>) to star in, written entirely by AI. With the slightest vocal and physical modulations, he transformed into a chilling corporate weirdo, just slightly off in all the right ways. Scott actually pitched himself for the new iteration of the HBO cult hit. He\u2019s a massive fan of the first two seasons that aired in 2005 and 2014, respectively; Kudrow and co-creator Michael Patrick King came back to him with the juicy supporting role. \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI was just thrilled to be there to watch Lisa do what she does \u2014 I genuinely think she\u2019s a comedic genius, and I think that character is completely mesmerizing to watch,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tAnd how does he feel about being the new face of AI in Hollywood? \u201cExactly which I\u2019ve always wanted to be,\u201d he cracks. \u201cDream come true!\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tAndrew Scott in the series finale of The Comeback<\/em>.<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotograph by Erin Simkin\/HBO<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tPressure <\/em>isn\u2019t the only big movie that Scott has in the can, either. He recently shot the devilish Christmas release A Place in Hell<\/em>, opposite Michelle Williams and Daisy Edgar-Jones, and John Crowley\u2019s new movie co-starring Emily Blunt. Then there\u2019s arguably Scott\u2019s most significant cinematic undertaking to date: Simon Stone\u2019s Elsinore<\/em>, the first film Scott has ever produced. He portrays the iconic Scottish actor Ian Charleson in his final days, as he prepares for his last stage performances as Hamlet while dying of AIDS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tScott has played one of the more celebrated modern Hamlets on the London stage. He counts Charleson among his great inspirations. As his profile has grown over the last few years, this feels like the role he\u2019s been working toward for his whole career.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIt\u2019s the biggest acting challenge that I\u2019ve ever had, there\u2019s no doubt about it, because there\u2019s the playing of this man who was going through this extraordinary time in his life, and also the Hamlet<\/em> of it all,\u201d he says. \u201cTheater is a big passion in my life. It was an enormous physical challenge, and a big mental one.\u201d He shares that he recently just watched an early cut of Elsinore<\/em>: \u201cTo be transparent, I\u2019m very excited about it\u2026. I feel very, very, very passionate about it.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tScott is driven these days by not repeating himself \u2014 and everything on that list certainly feels like uncharted territory for him. Take Pressure<\/em>: Scott has appeared in several war movies between Saving Private Ryan <\/em>and this one, including the Oscar-winning 1917<\/em>. Tonally and in subject matter, though, he felt Pressure <\/em>stood apart: \u201cThat sort of specificity was incredibly important to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tIt helped having an actor like Brendan Fraser as a most unexpected sparring partner. \u201cWe come from very different cultures, are very different in stature, and we\u2019ve got very different styles \u2014 it\u2019s an unusual juxtaposition of actors in some ways,\u201d Scott says. \u201cAnd I absolutely loved it.\u201d If there\u2019s one thing Scott has got down, it\u2019s keeping us off balance. This year, in that regard, he\u2019s just getting started.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the first film roles Andrew Scott ever played, nearly 30 years ago, was \u201cSoldier on the Beach\u201d in Saving Private Ryan. He appeared in the Steven Spielberg drama\u2019s legendary opening sequence, set during the Normandy Invasion at Omaha Beach on D-Day. \u201cI had one line or something, and Tom Hanks rolled over me, and I was very happy to be there,\u201d Scott recalls with a laugh. \u201cIt was an extraordinary thing \u2014 it was my first time being on a set of that enormity, and I feel very proud that I got to be a tiny part of that. It\u2019s a sequence that\u2019s gone down in movie history.\u201d\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1446,1447,1278,2,116,297,164,60,1448,1145,885],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-of-us-strangers","category-andrew-scott","category-brendan-fraser","category-hollywood","category-international","category-movie-features","category-movies","category-saving-private-ryan","category-steven-spielberg","category-the-comeback"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}