Ripley star was in Tortured Man Club WhatsApp group with fellow actor Paul Mescal and the singer’s former boyfriend Joe Alwyn
Andrew Scott has played down rumours that Taylor Swift’s new album was based on his WhatsApp group with Joe Alwyn, her former boyfriend.
The Ripley actor, 47, addressed speculation by the singer’s fans about the group chat, which included actor Paul Mescal and was titled Tortured Man Club, insisting that it was short-lived and “collapsed”.
In an interview with Variety magazine, he set the record straight, saying: “Let me tell you what that [group] is … So they were about to play these tortured characters, and I had played a tortured character in Fleabag. It wasn’t about our own characteristics!
“I think there were three texts, like, ‘Hey, guys.’ You know those groups that you set up, and they just collapse.”
Swift’s fans had speculated that the pop star’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department, was inspired by the group chat after Alwyn had revealed its existence while they were still together in 2022.
It was later discussed during an interview Alwyn had with Mescal, the star of Normal People, for Variety’s Actors on Actors series. They also revealed that Scott had created the group.
“It hasn’t had much use recently,” Alwyn said at the time, with Mescal adding: “I feel like we’re less tortured now.”
They later joked that Scott was “on it by himself” with Alwyn quipping that he was “just messaging himself good mornings”.
Now the Sherlock Holmes actor’s comments to Variety appear to confirm the existence of the shared dialogue between the three men was short-lived.
Scott added that he reached out to Swift to tell her “how amazing” her new 31-track album is, before describing her as “an extraordinary human” and “a force of nature”.
His favourite song, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, appears to address her brief romance with musician Matty Healy, while other tracks are understood to be nods to her six-year relationship with London-based Alwyn.
During the interview, Scott also discussed his dislike of the term “openly gay”, explaining that he feels “straight people don’t have to explain or talk about their sexuality every time they go to work”.
The Bafta award-winning actor added: “The idea that I’m being defiant by just being exactly who I am … Be open about it? Why wouldn’t you be open about it?
“The word ‘openly’, for me, just seems a little loaded.”
He also discussed the challenges of his starring role as Tom Ripley in the new Netflix TV drama, based on Patricia Highsmith’s best-selling thriller novels.
Scott said he was “concerned about how it would be perceived” and how it might change things for his career.
He addressed some backlash against his age for the part, which is based on a 25-year-old male, insisting: “When I played James Moriarty [in Sherlock], I was younger than people wanted the character to be.
“And they’d go: ‘I wanted the character to have a beard and wear a top hat, and this little f—– is now playing it like this, and I don’t want that!’ The biggest challenge for you is to put your dukes up and go, ‘Sorry, but this is this’.”
