BBC responds to criticism of its Andrew Scott BAFTA interview
Andrew Scott was asked inappropriate interview questions on the BAFTAs red carpet. (Getty)
The BBC has said its red carpet interview with Andrew Scott at the BAFTAs, which was criticised as “disgusting”, was “not intended to cause offence”.
At the BAFTA film awards Scott, who has said he “enjoys being gay so much, on so many levels”, was approached by BBC reporter Colin Paterson for an interview.
Paterson began the interview by asking if Scott was familiar with fellow Irish actor Barry Keoghan. “I know Barry, yeah,” Scott responded.
The interviewer then proceeded to ask what Scott’s reaction was to the end scene in Keoghan’s BAFTA-nominated movie Saltburn, which sees the actor dancing around the manor house naked to Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder on the Dancefloor.
Despite Scott not wanting to “spoil it for anybody”, Paterson continued to hound him for thoughts on the scene.
“There is a lot of talk about prosthetics, how well do you know them?,” he asked. To this, Scott simply walked away from the interview. “Too much?,” the reporter finally asked.
On Friday (23 February), the BBC released a statement in response to Paterson’s questions to the actor who attended the ceremony in support of his film All of Us Strangers.
The broadcaster said: “Our question to Andrew Scott was meant to be a light-hearted reflection of the discussion around the scene and was not intended to cause offence.”
BBC confirmed that both Ellis-Bextor and the film’s director, Emerald Fennell, were asked similar questions.
“We do, however, accept that the specific question asked to Andrew Scott was misjudged. After speaking with Andrew on the carpet, our reporter acknowledged on air that his questioning may have gone too far and that he was sorry if this was the case”.
On X, people were quick to hit out at the BBC’s interview, with fellow reporter Alex Gilston at Film Focus Online writing that the questions put to Scott were “frankly disgusting”.
“Weird energy by the interviewer,” said another social media user in the comments section. “Firstly Andrew Scott’s performance is truly astonishing and they should have been talking about this.”
