September 10, 2000
The Sunday Times
Culture
From M:i-2 to crewing a tank: Dougray Scott's career is really smoking; Interview; Dougray Scott
by Louise Gannon

Dougray Scott has the kind of looks that opens doors, and the kind of manner that slams them right back in your face. The 32-year-old actor from the rough end of Fife is one of the most reluctant celebrities you could hope to meet. So reluctant, in fact, that few people realise this is the man whose status is deemed by the Hollywood Reporter as being "probably the only young British star that the studios would give a leading role to".

Yet here he is, hotfoot from rehearsals of a debut play by an unknown writer at a small London theatre. He avoids eye contact studiously and sits out the initial small talk with a pained "What-am-I-doing-here?" expression emblazoned across his Byronic brow. The word "celebrity" itself causes him to flush dark with irritation. "I'm an actor. I want to be judged on my work, not on the number of flash suits in my wardrobe," he points out tersely.

	But a celebrity is undoubtedly what he has become after starring as the evil Sean Ambrose alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 2. A lead part in a big blockbuster ("I had no idea the film was going to basically turn out as a two-hander between Tom and
me") has meant life has changed for ever for Scott. He's even had a stalker.

"It happened in Australia," he says. "It was this person who always seemed to be one jump ahead of what I was doing. That was what was scary. Not the person themselves. I would have quite happily dealt with him myself, but you just can't go round beating people up in my situation. Eventually I got security to deal with him."

It should be pointed out that this seemingly small new play he's in is, in fact, the hottest ticket in London, because it's directed by Oscar-winner Sam Mendes at his now world-famous Donmar Warehouse theatre, and it's the kind of project most Hollywood stars would kill to be in.

Scott's route to the Hollywood big time was very much left of field. He was never part of the fashionable Brit Pack (the Jude Laws, the Anna Friels and the Kate Winslets), neither was he part of the equally fashionable Jock Pack (led by fellow Kirkcaldy drama student Ewan McGregor plus Robert Carlyle, Alan Cumming and Catherine McCormack). Almost out of nowhere, Scott just seemed to emerge.

"Twin Town never had the hype of Trainspotting, but I got real jobs off the back of it, which is to me a damn sight better than a load of pretentious profiles in trendy magazines," he says, taking a swig of lager (straight out of the bottle, he has already twice refused the offer of a glass).

Admittedly, many of the movies he has made are not the sort he'll be boasting about in years to come. His first big break, Another 9 Weeks, alongside Mickey Rourke ("Terrible script. Dull, bad, boring. It went straight to video"), was followed by a much-cut part as Tea Leoni's love interest in the asteroid drama
Deep Impact ("A truly appalling experience").

But perhaps because he resisted any attempt to turn himself into a personality, Scott was never hoist with his own petard. If a movie flopped, then nobody knew who he was anyway, so it never reflected on him. He deliberately kept his profile low and he took whatever came his way, including the British movies This Year's Love, Gregory's Two Girls and The Proposal, with Patsy Kensit.

In 1998 he beat Matt Damon to star as Prince Henry in Ever After alongside Drew Barrymore and Anjelica Huston. Hollywood's real-life drama queen (Drew's off-screen antics have always attracted far more attention than her celluloid moments) claimed she had "fallen in love with him". She gave endless interviews in which she drooled over his hair, his face, his voice and his talent. "Dougray is gorgeous. He's so handsome," she said. "He can play all sorts of men from different times and places. He's a very, very talented actor."

It was all tongue-in-cheek (for the record, Scott has a long-term girlfriend, the casting director Sarah Trevis, with whom he shares a home in London with their two-year-old twins, Gabriel and Eden), but it was sufficient to up Scott's ante.

People started to talk about him. Tom Cruise invited him over to his house for a game of pool. He won the game and walked away two hours later with the biggest role of his career to date in M:i-2 (although, ironically, he then had to turn down a part in X-Men because of M:i-2's overrun schedule).

You might expect Scott, at this point, to relate a tale or two about Tom. But he doesn't. He is short on anecdotes and long on awkward silences. "He's a good friend. I speak to him every week. I admire him as a man and as an actor," he says. And he looks out of the window.

Later he admits that every time he walks into a pub, the first question strangers ask him is: "What is Tom Cruise like?" He says: "It makes you feel personally responsible for guarding someone else's privacy."

It is clear Scott is finding his role as a celebrity tough going. "I am a working-class boy with strong socialist principles. I don't get carried away by all this. Having fame or money doesn't make you more important as a person than, say, that waiter over there. What's difficult is that other people seem to think it does."

He is uncomfortable with the way the focus has shifted. More notice is taken of the way he looks than the way he acts. It is apparent that this is largely the reason for his defensive behaviour. If he cringes at the word "celebrity", the words "heart-throb" and "hunk" (his tabloid tag) have him leaping over tables, teeth gnashing and fists flailing in all directions.

Once you get beyond this, you get to see a basically decent and rather shy, serious individual. Yet, to be honest, Scott wouldn't be where he is now if he didn't have a very well- arranged set of features and a six-pack up his jumper. Scott is exceptionally good in M:i-2, but the entertainment is basically derived from the fact that it revolves around two good-looking men who can do great things with helicopters and motorbikes.

He has the wit to laugh (finally) at this. But, more important, he has had the wisdom to make his next move on stage as part of the 10-strong cast of To the Green Fields Beyond, by Nick Whitby and directed by Mendes. Appearing in stage plays has become a shortcut for many actors to show that, however glamorous/famous/gorgeous they are, they are also actually very "serious" about their craft. It is not quite fair to say that this is the reason Scott has taken on the project, but it is fair to say that by so doing he is making a larger statement about his career as an actor.

"I did a movie called Enigma after M:i-2 (based on the Robert Harris novel about wartime code-breaking, co-starring Saffron Burrows and Kate Winslet), and then I got a call from Sam. It wasn't what I expected to do next, but then I saw the script and I dropped everything to do it. And, of course, it's given me the chance to work with Sam."

The genesis of this production is already part of theatre lore. Oscar-winner Mendes was in the midst of casting his next Donmar production, Twelfth Night, when Whitby's play was sent to him. He read it and immediately changed his plans ("Sam felt he could do Shakespeare any time, but this play was so special he just had to do it right now," says one of those involved in the production), flew into London and began hand-picking his cast, which also includes Ray Winstone, Paul Venables and Nitin Ganatra.

On paper, the play does not sound the sort of thing that could possibly cause this sort of reaction from Mendes and Scott. It is set in the first world war and focuses on the relationships between members of a tank crew, of which Scott is the leader. The action follows the events of just one night. All those involved in the play have been told not to give anything away. The writer refuses to have his photograph taken. Mendes will not be drawn.

Given Scott's natural reticence, it is not hard for him to comply with this edict. "It's interesting because it's not the sort of thing people would expect from a first world war drama. I play the leader, but of a very egalitarian team. It's about the relationships. These men facing death, facing each other.

"It's difficult to describe what makes it so incredible, but the impact is in the words of the play - the writing is truly outstanding." Ray Winstone describes the experience as "sort of humbling, like going back to school".

Scott pauses: "Sam and I have both had the Hollywood experience. The bright lights, the limos, the five-star trailer vans, the whole big ego trip. This is something else entirely. I go to work on the Tube, and we break for lunch in a pub. I like it. It's what I need, and it's probably going to be the best thing I've ever done."

Tom Cruise and Mick Jagger (Jagger's film company made Enigma) have already made sure they can attend. This man may be difficult, but he has enormous pulling power. And of course he is incredibly handsome. Dougray Scott is going to be huge. Let's hope he will learn to enjoy it.

To the Green Fields Beyond, Donmar Warehouse, from Sept 14
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