'Central government is a recipe for disaster': Scottish actor Dougray Scott Photo: Rhee Schroer
Dougray Scott can be quite abusive. The man who started his career balancing between the Hollywood prince from the Cinderella adaptation of Ever After and the obnoxious villain from Mission: Impossible 2 is outspoken, funny, and with his deep voice and laid-back attitude makes him one of the most quoted actors. ever met. Scott from Glenrothes in Fife is 57 years old, but he tells me: “If someone pokes the beast, then I will turn the fucking 40 years” – a friend tells him that he is “really fucking”. – municipal property. He doesn't accept the name, but he knows what they mean, so buckle up.
Scott hit the sweet spot in a long career that prophesied him as the next Bond before Daniel Craig landed the job in 2006. playwright Arthur Miller in My Week with Marilyn. He is in the second series of the hit series Vigil, which he promises will be “shocking, unexpected, brilliantly done”; and he received great reviews for “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” on stage earlier this year. Meanwhile, his performance in Crime, a six-part drama adapted from Irvine Welsh's dark detective thriller, as the unrestrained Inspector Ray Lennox won him an international Emmy Award.
It briefly looked like his revival might be undermined after gender-fluid actress Ruby Rose, who left the lead role on the TV show Batwoman in 2020, accused him of on-set misconduct when he played her character's father. . (Rose uses the pronouns “she” or “they.”) She claimed that Scott “damaged a stunt woman” and “screamed like a little bitch at women, and it was a nightmare.” “It was a shock because it didn’t happen,” Scott tells me. Warner Bros came to his defense, saying that Scott was a “consummate professional” on set, and Rose was fired after “multiple complaints” about her behavior on the job. “The studio was very, very loud because they knew what happened,” Scott says. “She was fired because of her behavior on set, not because of me. But it was not pleasant at all – as someone who is proud of his behavior on the set and is well aware of the men on the set.
In Crime, which he co-produced: “I aimed to create a very clean and safe environment for women. There is no sexual atmosphere on the set, women should not put up with this shit in any setting, be it on the set or anywhere.”
Crime has been such a hit on Britbox that the first series is now being moved to ITVX, with a second scheduled for later this year. A ragged Scott Lennox recovers from alcohol and cocaine addiction, but becomes increasingly personal embroiled in a missing child case. Scott takes the role to the limit: the tension is written in every line of his face. How did Scott manage to look so broken? “Lots of practice,” he laughs. “You know when you talk about acting sensory memory? I'm living a pretty serene life now, but you're using your past. And I was definitely there.”
Dougray Scott as Ray Lennox, the white-haired Crime character. Photo: BritBox
In fact, he was “out there” with Wales. He and the former drug addict have come a long way, and the writer loves to remind Scott of the nights long ago they shared in Los Angeles that were so hedonistic that the actor lost all memory of what happened. Scott has been trying to make an adaptation of his friend's book for the better part of a decade, and he's proud to have brought it to the screen with Welsh's distinctive qualities intact. “I don't think we diluted the mother tongue of his language. When you fiddle with the basic ingredients of something special, you dilute it and make it less attractive, you make it less powerful. I said that if you try to mess with Irwin Welsh's language to the point where you lose his genius, then you f—–. to another famous writer. “Leave Roald Dahl alone. He's a damn genius. I read it to all my children. Can't you say fat? What else can you use? It's an adjective. It's not offensive. It's just what it is.”
Scott is the father of a twin son, Gabriel, and a 25-year-old daughter, Eden, from his first marriage, and also has another eight-year-old son, Milo, from his second wife, Hollywood actress Claire Forlani. Gabriel also makes his way as an actor, appearing in “His Dark Materials” and “House of the Dragon”; he plays Lennox's nephew in the second series of “Crime”.
Dougray Scott with his wife, actress Claire Forlani. Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Action on Addiction
I wonder if Scott is sensitive to Gabriel's accusations of being an “uninitiated kid” – a label that Hollywood is currently chasing. “I completely ignored it,” he says. “I do not know what it means. My son is really talented. So you're denying them opportunities because you're worried about what people say about nepotism? Well, it works emotionally for the play because he's playing my nephew and he's my son, so there's a connection here that you can't play. I don't think anyone will get a job if they're really incapable of doing the job… I think he won the role.”
The idea of inherited privileges comes up again when we discuss the coronation. “I like King Charles as a person. I had lunch with him because in his Prince's Foundation in Scotland he had all these boys from Castlemilk [in Glasgow], who were drug addicts, and I thought he was great. No matter what you think of the royal family …he is a good guy. It is not their fault that they were born into such a privileged position and power.”
He adds that he does not agree with his compatriot, actor Brian Cox, that the monarchy should be abolished in order to spare us his “feudal power over our culture.” “I am not at all an anti-royalist,” he says. “Democratically is it right? Probably no. But they are, and what would you do? Deprive them of power and force them to go looking for work? This is impractical.”
Dougray Scott as Ray Lennox in Crime. Photo: BritBox
However, he has strong views on another constitutional issue: Scotland's place in the Union. “I believe in independence,” he says. “This is the right thing to do. I think it's very strange that we've been voting for years for a government that doesn't represent us. It is also a matter of devolution on a larger scale for the whole of Britain,” he adds. “I don't think centralized government in its current form is working. It's just a recipe for disaster.”
He loves Nicola Sturgeon, whom he met at an event at Edinburgh Castle. “I thought, man, you’re fucking cool, that’s great. I used to love her. I think most of the criticism she received was just misogynistic.”
He is also suspicious of where the information about financial irregularities at the SNP comes from. “It seems very convenient that he came out. And I think there's a lot of nefarious behavior going on. I think she was fierce in her determination to achieve Scottish independence. And I think that really threw off independence.”
Scott hopes to return to live in Scotland someday, but in the meantime he and partner Tony Wood plan to bring more Scottish stories to a wider audience and have several projects in the works. including The Blademaster of Wales and a series of novels by Jenny Fagan who grew up in the Scottish nursing system. Scotland holds a special place in his heart, from Fife's “very beautiful” East Knock to Glasgow – “part of my DNA” – to Brian Cox. “I love him. I saw him at the [Scottish] Baftas and I won and he said, 'Now maybe you'll fucking smile.' I called you the pathetic bastard Phifer.” I've ever met in my life.” Anyway, when I won an Emmy, I sent him a picture and said, “I'm not so damn miserable now, am I?”
The first season of “Crime” airs on May 11 on ITVX
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