Andrew Scott Recalls Extremely Rude Audience Incident That Led To Him 'Pausing' Hamlet Performance

"While I was in the middle of ‘to be or not to f***ing be’..."
Open Image Modal
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 14: Andrew Scott visits SiriusXM Studios on December 14, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)
Noam Galai via Getty Images

Andrew Scott has revealed he once brought a performance of Hamlet to an abrupt halt after spotting some seriously rude behaviour in the audience.

The Fleabag actor took the lead in the much-loved Shakespeare play back in 2017, and recalled one memorable incident during a recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.

“A guy took out his laptop – not his phone, his laptop – while I was in the middle of ‘to be or not to fucking be’,” he said.

“I was pausing and [the stage team] were like, ‘Get on with it’ and I was like, ‘There’s no way.’ I stopped for ages.”

According to Andrew, it was only when the person next to the audience member in question gave him a nudge about his errant emailing that he closed his laptop again, allowing the Irish star to get on with his performance.

But Andrew isn’t the only Thespian to have voiced his upset about audience members and their devices.

In 2015, Broadway icon Patti LuPone was seen literally snatching a phone out of an audience member’s hand when she spotted them texting during her performance. 

Open Image Modal
Icon, legend, diva and phone-hater Patti LuPone
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin via Getty Images

We work hard on stage to create a world that is being totally destroyed by a few, rude, self-absorbed and inconsiderate audience members who are controlled by their phones,” the three-time Tony winner said in a follow-up statement.

She added: “I am so defeated by this issue that I seriously question whether I want to work on stage anymore.”

That same year, Madonna was previously called out by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and performer Jonathan Groff for allegedly texting during a performance of the hit show (although the Queen of Pop herself later denied this).