Andrew Scott Makes His Best Actor Case in First ‘Elsinore’ Trailer

The trailer for Simon Stone’s “Elsinore” has just been released, giving us our first substantial look at Andrew Scott in what has quickly become one of the most talked-about Best Actor contenders of the fall.

Scott is clearly the main reason “Elsinore” remains in the conversation. The film currently sits at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and 75 on Metacritic, with critics largely singling out his performance.

“Elsinore” stars Scott as acclaimed Scottish actor Ian Charleson, best known for “Chariots of Fire,” focusing on the final chapter of his life and his celebrated 1989 stage performance as Hamlet at London’s National Theatre while seriously ill with AIDS. Olivia Colman, Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Joe Locke, and Juliet Stevenson also star.

I was skeptical of the early hype because, on paper, the movie sounded almost too perfectly engineered for awards season: a beloved actor, a legendary stage performance, Shakespeare, AIDS, mortality, and a major transformation from one of Ireland’s most acclaimed actors. That’s a lot of Oscar bait packed into one movie. Having now seen the film, my assumptions were correct. I’ll have more about this film closer to its release date.

Scott is coming off acclaimed performances in “All of Us Strangers,” “Blue Moon,” “Wake Up Dead Man,” and “Pressure,” and “Elsinore” gives him exactly the sort of showcase role the Academy tends to respond to. He’s playing an acclaimed actor confronting his own mortality while attempting one of the greatest roles in the theatrical canon

The Best Actor race is looking considerably more crowded than the Actress race. Alongside Scott, there’s Matt Damon (“The Odyssey”), Ryan Gosling (“Project Hail Mary”), and of course John Malkovich (“Wild Horse Nine”). Who knows, maybe Tom Cruise (“Digger”) will somehow still fit into the equation despite the divide his film is certain to bring.