Andrew Scott has broken his silence. On the new Taylor Swift album. In his Variety cover story, Scott said he liked the album which may or may not have been named after a group chat he started. “Taylor’s new album is sensational! I texted her yesterday to say how amazing it is,†he said. “I think she is just a force of nature, just an extraordinary human, and this album is really, really amazing.â€
When Swift announced the name of her in February, fans conjectured the album title was perhaps a reference to a group text her ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn had with Scott and Paul Mescal. That chat, “The Tortured Man Club,†was discussed by Alwyn and Mescal on Variety’s Actors on Actors video.
Scott did not address whether the chat inspired the album title, but he did touch on the (now dead) text chain. Scott says he connected Alwyn and Mescal because the former was about to star in Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends. Mescal had already been in Rooney’s Normal People. “So they were about to play these tortured characters,†he said, “and I had played a tortured character in Fleabag. It wasn’t about our own characteristics!†But the men are tortured no more. “I think there were three texts, like, ‘Hey, guys.’†Scott said. “You know those groups that you set up, and they just collapse.â€
Oh, and if you’re wondering, Scott’s favorite track on TTPD is “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.†Which means he’s probably listened to more of it than Matty Healy has.