Andrew Scott reveals he cut short his performance of Hamlet after an audience member opened a laptop to answer emails: ‘I was in the middle of “to be or not to f***ing be!”

Andrew Scott has revealed he once had to interrupt his performance of Hamlet after an audience member opened his laptop.

The Irish actor, 47, played the titular role in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy at London’s Almeida Theater in 2017.

He received critical acclaim for his performance, earning him a nomination for an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play.

However, Andrew has now revealed that not all theatergoers were equally impressed with his portrayal.

Speaking to the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he recalled how an audience member memorably took out his laptop to answer emails mid-show.

He said: ‘When I was playing Hamlet, a man took out his laptop – not his phone, his laptop – while I was in the middle of a ‘to be or not to f***ing be’ situation.

‘I was taking a break and [the stage team] I was like, ‘Keep going,’ and I was like, ‘That’s impossible. I stopped for an eternity.

Andrew added that the woman next to the rude onlooker warned him and eventually made him put his computer away.

He concluded: ‘He had absolutely no doubts’.

It marks a new incident in a growing problem of problematic audience members interrupting stage productions.

Richard Griffiths threatened to leave the stage during The History Boys in 2006 after a phone rang three times during his performance.

The late actor told the audience: ‘You should be ashamed of yourselves. I’m not going to compete with these electronic devices. The director told you to turn them off, you were told it was against the law.

“We’re going to start this scene over again. If we hear another phone ringing, we will stop this afternoon’s performance. You have been warned.’

The year before, he ordered a woman out of his performance of Heroes at Wyndham’s Theater, telling her: “The 750 people here would be completely justified in suing you for ruining their afternoon.”

In 2009, Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig confronted a theatergoer whose phone went off during their Broadway play, A Steady Rain.

Hugh stopped his performance to speak to the phone’s owner: ‘You want to get that? Do you want to get it? Grab it. I do not mind.’

As the ringing continued, the actor said angrily, “Come on, just turn it off… Unless you have a better story.” Will you stand up and tell your stories?’

His co-star Daniel then joined in, saying: ‘Can you get that? We can wait, just pick up the phone’.

James McAvoy brought a 2013 theater production of Macbeth to a halt when he noticed an audience member was filming his performance.

The actor stopped the show to berate the man and refused to continue the play until the camera was securely stowed away.

In her 2015 Broadway debut, Keira Knightley’s production of Therese Raquin was also paused after an audience member proposed to the actress.

Other attendees reported that the man shouted at Keira and threw a bouquet of flowers at the stage as she tried to stay in character.

Finally, security threw the heckler out in handcuffs while the play had a brief intermission.

Patti LuPone famously ripped a phone out of a person’s hand in the audience during her 2015 Shows for Days performance after they were caught texting.

The phone was returned after the show, but Patti released a statement saying, “We work hard on stage to create a world that is totally destroyed by a few rude, self-centered and inconsiderate audience members controlled by their phones .

“They can’t put them down. “If a phone goes off or an LED screen shows up in the dark, it ruins the experience for everyone else: most of the audience at that performance and the actors on stage.”

Like Andrew, Benedict Cumberbatch also took on the role of Hamlet in 2015 when he complained about phones in the audience.

Addressing the audience, he made an impassioned plea: “I see cameras in the room. It may not be any of you here, but it’s obvious.

“It’s humbling and there’s nothing less supportive or enjoyable about an actor experiencing that on stage.

“What I really want to do is try to hire you. I don’t use social media and I would really appreciate it if you would tweet, blog or hashtag this for me.

“This isn’t my fault to you, I’m just asking you to keep it flowing out there in the brilliantly beautiful way you do with your funny electronic stuff. I would really appreciate it.’

And it’s not just the regular attendees who are being criticized for rude behaviour, with Lin-Manuel Miranda angry at pop star Madonna for ‘texting a lot’ while in the audience of Hamilton in 2015.

The musical’s creator and star reportedly banned Madonna from returning, with star Jonathan Groff adding: ‘That b***h was on her phone. You couldn’t miss it from the stage.

“It was a black void of the audience in front of us and her face there perfectly illuminated by the light of her iPhone for three-quarters of the show.”