1001 Marie Claire

October 2001
Marie Claire (UK edition)
Dougray Scott
by Demetrios Matheou

A couple of years ago, he was just a talented Britpack actor; now, the UK's answers to Russell Crowe is on every Hollywood wish-list. Here, he talks to Demetrios Matheou about working with Tom Cruise and his new film, the English thriller Enigma

Dougray Scott is looking baggy-eyed and unshaven - although the ruggedly handsome result no doubt suits his role as the code-breaking hero of the World War II thriller, Enigma, which was filmed in the Leicestershire countryside.

	"I'm knackered," he admits. And it's no wonder he's tired. The last couple of years have seen the 35-year-old's star seriously on the rise: one moment he was making modest British films such as Regeneration and This Year's Love, the next, he was co-starring as the villain opposite Tom Cruise in the blockbuster
Mission: Impossible II. By the time that was showing last year, the Scottish actor was on every Hollywood wish-list.

"I could feasibly go through the rest of my career and never make another film as big as Mission: Impossible II," he reflects. "When Tom chose me, I thought, 'There's got to be a catch here.' But there wasn't. It was such a great buzz."

After nine months of gunfights, motorcycle chases and martial arts-style duels with Cruise, Enigma couldn't be more of a contrast. "This one is very cerebral. TO research Mission, I was hanging out with secret service people and the SAS; for Enigma, I spent time with Cambridge mathematicians, learning how to break codes."

He also enjoys not one, but two love interests, in the forms of Kate Winslet and Saffron Burrows. When asked about the gorgeous Titanic star, Scott gives a cheeky smile. "What can I say? She's a laugh. She's naughty."

Born in Glenrothes, Fife, Scott trained at the Welsh College of Music and Drama and acted in theatre and TV (including Solder Soldier) before his performance as a sleazy copy in the cult film Twin Town (known as 'the Welsh Trainspotting') caught Cruise's eye.

"Tom just doesn't come up with that starry stuff at all," he says approvingly. "We got on really well, and now we talk a lot on the phone. We're friends, as much as you can be friends with Tom Cruise - he's so famous that his life is pretty difficult."

There's no danger of fame ruining Scott's private life, though. He married casting director Sarah Trevis in April 2000 (Ewan McGregor was best man) and the couple have three-year-old twins, Gabriel and Eden. Mention of his family brings the biggest twinkle to his eye. "It's great," he says dreamily. "It's lovely." Ahhh....