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October 6, 2001 The Scottish actor takes his job in stride. After all, it's just a way to delve into the mysteries around him At a time when his career is veritably soaring, Scottish actor Dougray Scott instead sounds rather subdued as he speaks by telephone from his London home. Like all of us, the events that transpired in New York and Washington have exacted an emotional toll and, rather than attend the recent gala presentation of the Mick Jagger-produced Enigma at the Toronto International Film Festival, he sat at home with his wife and twin sons, pondering the state of the world. In his absence, the audience that night broke into spontaneous applause as the film came to an end, a sure sign Enigma will be well received once it goes into general release. Set in England during the Second World War, the story focuses on the surreptitious efforts of a team of mathematicians to break the Nazi code machine known as Enigma. The role of Tom Jericho, a brilliant yet mentally unstable individual, appealed to Scott's sense of history. "I loved history at school. It's all part of investigation, having the opportunity to find out about something you've not been inclined to find out about," he reveals. "It's an intriguing part of history. The code-breaking aspect of the Second World War shortened the war by about two years, they think. "The people who are portrayed in Enigma were incredibly humble and selfless in the sense that they got no praise for any heroic efforts they were making. They had to keep their mouths shut. That intrigued me. And Jericho's character, the way his brain worked, he was a genius in terms of mathematics but when it comes to relationships with people, he is a virgin in that sense. The emotions that were brought up inside him were incredibly new to him and he was not in control of that." To prepare, the 36-year-old Scott read incessantly about the period and particularly about the work done at Bletchley Park, headquarters for British military intelligence's code-breaking activities. He spent two months working with a genuine enigma machine at the Bletchley museum, becoming so proficient that he could "take apart and put back together the machine in my sleep." He says Mick Jagger has his own authentic enigma machine and the two share a love of history. Preparing for the role wasn't all play. "I had to lose about 35 pounds because I had just done Mission Impossible:2," he says, referring to his starring role opposite Tom Cruise in last year's box office smash, "and I was all bulked up and I had to lose all that. It wouldn't have looked right for Jericho -- he was suffering from a nervous breakdown, consequently he wasn't eating very much. I went on a special diet and exercised. I lost it over a period of two months. If you are very disciplined it's not a problem." Once called "a waster" (someone who won't amount to much) by the headmaster at Auchmuty high school in Fife, Scotland, Scott has for years acted on British stage and screen, though it was Mission Impossible:2 that gave him wide exposure to North American audiences. Oddly enough, he didn't have to audition for the part. Cruise simply invited Scott to his house to meet director John Woo and after two hours of playing pool the deal was cemented. The success of that film meant there has been no shortage of work offers, though he is extremely careful about his choice of characters. Indeed, he turned down financially lucrative roles to perform in a London play To the Green Fields and Beyond, which enjoyed critical and commercial success a year ago. Next up was a role opposite John Malkovich in Ripley's Game, the sequel to The Talented Mr. Ripley, that will be released early next year. Scott expects to work in another Mick Jagger film about the poet Dylan Thomas sometime next year. Once he fully comes to terms with the tragic circumstances in the United States, he will return to producing his first feature film, entitled Cromwell and Fairfax. "That's another intriguing part of British history -- the first and last time we had a republic," he says, once again revealing his fascination with historical characters. Copyright © 2001 National Post Online |
