2001 BAFTA

2001
The Orange British Academy Film Awards programme
Dougray's Game
by Claire Wills

He's prime big screen material and has worked with some of Hollywood's major players, but just who is this fine film star from Fife?

From Hollywood blockbuster to Brit period drama to the Donmar Warehouse in a single year, Dougray Scott is enjoying an exceptionally varied career.

Dougray Scott's career in Hollywood to date has gone from strength to strength and that ascent looks set to continue

He's not the only British actor to cite TV's Soldier Soldier on his CV, but how many have co-starred with Tom Cruise in a John Woo action sequel? Fife-born Scott has.

Apparently, it all comes down to his role in a low-budget British black comedy. Twin Town was pretty much ignored over here but was greeted with a positive curiosity in the States.

So having been spotted playing a bent, drug-dealing copper in Swansea, Scott soon found himself playing Prince Charming to Drew Barrymore's Cinderella in the fairytale Ever After. He was also cast in the space-set,

no-brainer Deep Impact, "a film I was almost entirely cut of of, which I wasn't too bothered about".

Following that (and a return to the UK for WWI drama Regeneration, Camden-set romantic comedy This Year's Love and Bill Forsyth's comic sequel Gregory's 2 Girls), he landed the role of baddie Sean Ambrose in Mission: Impossible 2.

Missions, mutants and Mendes

Although he was happy to get fit for the role (spending nine months running and hitting the weight room to bulk up) and to work with "the best action director in the world", Scott soon found that the job took rather longer than had been originally expected.

This wasn't - contrary to tabloid reports - anything to do with the fact the he fell off his bike during shooting. He did take a tumble, bruising his ribs, but got up straight away and no time was lost.

"There was a lot of rubbish written about that we lost so many weeks; even John Woo said that - I don't know where he got that from. We didn't lose any days from me coming off my bike. He must have been misquoted. It wasn't my fault!"

Filming did drag on - a month was lost due to bad weather along - making a tough job even tougher.

"It's really hard to keep sight of your character over nine months," Scott says. "It's like the difference between doing a spring and doing a marathon."

"You've got to pace yourself. Tom keeps incredibly focused. If you can keep your concentration for nine months on a huge film like M:I-2, your concentration's pretty good."

Unfortunately, the over-running shoot meant that Scott had to give up another big role, that of Wolverine in Bryan Singer's X-Men.

"They kept postponing filming which was very nice and flattering," he says, "but at the end of the day they couldn't wait anymore." He was eventually replaced by Hugh Jackman.

Scott remains philosophical about the whole experience: "It was disappointing at the time but it was one of those things. I didn't get hung up or embittered about it at all; it was no one's fault."

"Some people attach a great deal of importance in being photographed and being in the right magazines," he explains. "I couldn't give a f*** about that, I really don't.

Instead, he made an unexpected return to the theatre - after seven years away - when Sam Mendes cast him in his Donmar Warehouse production of the World War I play, To The Green Fields Beyond.

"I was very wary and nervous about going back on the stage," Scott confesses, "but Sam cajoled me and allayed my fears. He said it's just like doing a film at the Donmar because the audience is so close.

"It was still nerve-wracking at the beginning - being in front of a live audience you feel very very exposed - but I really enjoyed doing it."

So will there be more forays into theatre? Scott's not so sure

"It's not something I like to do every year," he muses. "Sam's said you've got to do it every three years and I thought, hmmm, maybe every seven years..."

Enigma variations

After all, Scott's heart is obviously in film. He talks with great eagerness about the role he calls his favorite yet, Tom Jericho in Michael Apted's forthcoming Enigma, the World War II thriller based on Robert Harris' best-seller.

He describes it as "the most intriguing part I've played, because of his complexity. He's so far away from me."

Jericho is based loosely on code-breaker Alan Turing, although the fictional story also throws in a love affair with a woman played by Saffron Burrows. Jericho ends up trying to find the woman he's fallen in love with as well as attempting to break the code.

"It's an intriguing script and a wonderful film," Scott raves, before adding cautiously, "well, I hope it is."

He certainly put enough work into the role, spending five months learning how to crack codes - "I needed that time because it was so complicated" - but he seems to relish this method approach to a role.

"I just find it fascinating finding out about other people's lives - and it makes it easier," he shrugs.

Game Plan

Recently, he's been "find out about picture framing" for Lilana Cavani's highly anticipated Ripley's Game, Patricia Highsmith's follow up to The Talented Mr. Ripley (set about 20 years on). Scott's character is suffering from leukemia and is vulnerable to the evil suggestions of John Malkovich's Ripley.

It's a challenging role and one he's not sure how to tackle.

"I still don't know how I'm going to play him," he admits, a month before filming starts. "He's a pompous, upper-class English guy who has this terrible illness and is dying."

Scott relishes the challenge: "If I find it hard to imagine how to do the character, that's usually how I decide whether to do it or not. The ones that are easier to do are not much of a challenge."

So despite taking one such unchallenging role and appearing in one of the biggest films of last year, why is it that Scott's name tends to receive a quizzical response, along the lines, "I know the name but I can't picture the face"?

He turned up to the premiere of M:I-2 - slipping off for a meal with Cruise during the screening - but, on the whole, he says, "I don't really hang out with actors that much. I have more of a home life (with three-year old twins Gabriel and Eden).

He has absolutely no time for the cult of celebrity: "you open up a magazine and it's the same people, the rent-a-crowd from the celeb circuit. It makes me laugh.

"Some people attach a greater deal of importance to being photographed and being in the right magazines," he explains. "I couldn't give a f*** about that, I really don't. You don't have to do that to be a successful actor."

Indeed. When you can include Tom Cruise and John Malkovich among your co-stars, who needs to be on the cover of a glossy?

- Thanks to my pal Meluchie for the article!