Interview with Scott Reid

Scott Reid is currently touring with The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time playing Christopher Boone. Scott is also soon to be on our screens in the new series of Line of Duty.

Bio

SCOTT REID

Theatre

For the National: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (tour)

Other work in theatre includes: The Choir, Fever Dream: Southside, The Maids, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Perfect Stroke, Ophelia: Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Fleeto and Wee Andy, Passion, Black Barn, The Martyr, Fit for a King

TV

Line of Duty, Still Game, Sketchland: Leaving Home, What’s Funny About the Indyref?, Waterloo’s Warrior

Short film

Doocot, A Shite, a Shower, a Shave and a Shigarette, Two Soldiers, City, Echoes, No Mean City: The Sherricking of the King, Someday

Awards

Perfect Stroke – CATS nomination, Best Actor

 

I caught up with Scott and we had a chat about “Curious” and his journey so far.

Do you remember when you decided acting was for you? 

A neighbor of ours started to go along to a youth group and they said that they thought I would enjoy it. So I joined and was splitting myself between acting and football. I was playing for a professional team. Then at 14 I remember having a deep conversation with my dad on our driveway and he said why don’t you choose one so I chose acting.  At 16 I auditioned for drama school and started at The Royal Conservatoire which is a very prestigious drama school for Scottish actors (Robert Carlyle, David Tennant to name just two) at 17.

Who would you like to work with? 

Good question – I’d like to work with Paul Giamatti I think he’s a ball of energy, and has a rawness and freshness.  Very charismatic but not afraid to show emotion and there’s a level of specificity in characterisation in his acting.

What’s the best thing you’ve seen recently?

I saw Love whilst we were rehearsing at the National but the thing that blew my mind was last year at The Barbican Isabelle Huppert Phaedra.

Lets talk about the play…….

Curious has a very specific story to share, tell me about your research and why you think it is so important? 

I think what Curious does so well is it brings a naturalism and a kitchen sink realism. The gritty hardcore reality of life. With exceptional projections and vision but actually at the heart of it it’s about family, love and a young boys dreams. It was really tough learning the lines and to understand and even now I think to myself this is huge.

You look like you work as team?

Yes we have to, it’s a very physical show and we have work together. It’s very much like a family and trust is a big thing. I have to trust them when I run up the wall and other points in the show. And it’s not just the people on stage the tech team are all really important. For instance I have to work closely with the sound guys because I don’t leave the stage. So if the sound isn’t right we can’t sort it, Of course there are days when like any family it doesn’t go as well but when we all walk on stage we know we can trust each other completely. The levels of imagination and the connectivity we have you know, it’s firing on all cylinders. It’s the commitment to the cause and the storytelling of the story.

In the play during the first act you build a train track how long did that take to learn?

It took ages to learn but now I think if I tipped all the boxes out, I could still build it now? Talking of boxes I’m intrigued on how you each know which box to open to get the props out? Well when we open them the props are automatically replaced and it’s just a few we use throughout.

Quirky questions

If you could have a super power?

I’d like to travel back in time – like Doc in back to the future. I think it would be interesting to see historic events and go to gigs and things you wouldn’t think were possible.

If you could go back to a period in history?

If I could be my age now I’d like to go back in time to New York in the Mid 60’s because it was around the time of the birth of creativity and times and lives were changing. I like the aspiration of the art, the music, the poetry that was being made then.

Who do you think is the most influential person in the world?

It’s not the most positive of answers but I actually think someone like Rupert Murdoch who controls the media – unfortunately a lot of people form their opinions on what they read. It’s not about providing articulate newsworthy stories it’s about making money and selling papers. They influence and people only seem to be waking up to the fact of fake news, when it’s being going on for years so yes I think them.

All that’s remains for me to say is thank you for your time Scott. If you would like to see the tour you can book by clicking in HERE