Why The Actor From Black Mirror's "Smithereens" Seems So, So Familiar

You either already know and love Black Mirror's "Smithereens" actor Andrew Scott, or you’re just hearing the name now and you’re confused as to why everyone is suddenly googling rules about having sex with a priest. Though he’s been steadily acting for the last two decades (one of his earliest roles was in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, as well as the mini-series Band of Brothers), it wasn’t until his turn in Sherlock as Moriarty that he achieved cult fame status.

And thanks to his recent appearances in Fleabag and Season 5 of Black Mirror, Summer 2019 is turning into the Summer of Andrew Scott. And, honestly, finally!

Are his fans called Scotties? Scottys? The Mascotts? (Twitter came up with that one.) Whatever his fans are called it’s clear that they’re not going away anytime soon. So whether or not you’re a long-time Andrew Scott fan or brand new to all of this, here’s the lowdown on him.

Scott was born in Dublin, Ireland and actually started making his mark on the world of the theater before ever jumping to television and film. For his work in 1998’s Long Days Journey into Night, he won Actor of the Year at the Sunday Independent Spirit of Life Arts Awards 1998 and received an Irish Times Theatre Award 1998 nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He later won his first Olivier Award (England’s equivalent of a Tony Award) for his role in A Girl in a Car with a Man at The Royal Court in 2004.

While he had humble, but clearly impressive, beginnings in theater, it was one fateful role on the BBC that launched him into stardom.

Scott’s major break came from BBC’s Sherlock, where he played Jim Moriarty, Sherlock’s complete and utter enemy. Though he is barely in the first season (he shows up at the very, very end) and is killed at the end of the second season (which is still really upsetting!!), you’d think the character had its own six season series because Tumbler loves Moriarity. Like, if you’re looking to fall down a giant Tumbler hole one day, just search for Moriarity.

Whether Moriarity really died on the show was hotly debated going into season 3 of the series, and even though he was super dead he was beloved by fans. He was brought back for a brief appearance in Season 4 (which was a super tongue-in-cheek appearance) and should Sherlock ever return for Season 5 there’s a high chance we’d see this character again somehow. All other villains on Sherlock have paled in comparison to Moriarity.

In April 2019 (and still continuing to this day), there was a huge spike in Google searches for “can you have sex with a priest.” The answer is, of course, no. But that didn’t stop Fleabag (and viewers) from lusting after Scott’s character of The Hot Priest in Fleabag.

The thing about The Hot Priest is that he completely sees the flawed and rough Fleabag. Maybe the greatest moment in television ever is when Fleabag, and viewers, learn that The Hot Priest can actually see her asides to the camera. Talking to Vulture, Scott explained, “The way we talked about it was he sees her. He’s the first character that sees her, that sees everything about her, even her inner thoughts and inner doubts. I suppose we wanted as well to break TV convention, the visual convention."

It’s layered and beautiful and once again you shouldn’t have sex with a priest, but for Fleabag it’s so much more than sex.

As for what’s next, Scott is set to appear in an episode of Prime Video’s anthology series Modern Love, and a war movie titled 1917. You can also always go back and watch James Bond’s Spectre, where Scott played a doomed agent for MI-6.