Like many of Britain’s great actors, Andrew Scott is very familiar with “Hamlet,” having played the title role dozens of times on the West End. But to take on the role of Ian Charleson in “Elsinore,” he had to toss much of how he approached the Prince of Denmark out of the window…except for the memories of how much it took its toll.
“That part really does nearly kill you. You do eight shows a week, it’s nearly four hours long, and you do it twice on Wednesday and twice on Saturday,” Scott told Casey Loving at TheWrap’s 2026 Toronto International Film Festival studio about his time working on a modern-day set production of “Hamlet” in 2017.
The fatiguing nature of “Hamlet” came to mind as Scott took on “Elsinore,” which tells the true story of how Ian Charleson, three months before dying of AIDS, took on the role at London’s National Theatre.
“The idea that he was doing it when he was so sick. It’s still to this day just completely mind-boggling to me,” Scott said.
Charleson’s performance is regarded as one of the finest in the history of British theatre, particularly after the revelation of his AIDS diagnosis following his death in 1990. But no footage was ever taken of that performance, so Scott had to imagine what might have been going through Charleson’s mind as he took on a role most famous for its “To Be or Not to Be” soliloquy, arguably the most famous speech on mortality ever written.
“To imagine what he might have been thinking about at the time… Prince Hamlet would have been thinking about similar things too, about where we are going to go. The undiscovered country,” Scott said. “I learnt all the soliloquy, certainly. I combed through the entire script to see what bits might have been relevant, and I learned about maybe two-thirds of the part all over again.”
Despite that reminder of impending death in his work, Scott believes Charleson found something freeing in playing Hamlet amidst all he was facing with AIDS, and that his work as an actor allowed him to keep his spirits up even in his final months.
“That’s what we do as actors. We look towards light, and and I think not just actors but human beings,” he said. “You get a diagnosis and everybody says, well, ‘You caught it early,’ or you’re in an accident, you break your foot, and you go, ‘Well, you didn’t break your back.’ Like, that’s what we do. We don’t wallow in the darkness.”
“Elsinore” will be released by Focus Features on Nov. 20.
