Paul Brannigan: 'The Angels' Share'

From a life of drugs on a tough housing estate to sharing a love scene with Scarlett Johansson - Britain's unlikely new movie star

Paul Brannigan's life story could make a Hollywood film on its own

Both his parents were ­heroin addicts and he started taking drugs at 11.
He was expelled from school at 14, sent to jail over a gun battle at 17, and there’s a scar on his face from a knife fight with his own brother.
So how do you go from there to ­becoming a Hollywood actor sharing a love scene with Scarlett Johansson?
Ask Paul Brannigan... it’s his life story.
It’s certainly a long way from his gritty Glasgow council estate to the glamour of the Cannes Film Festival.
And 25-year-old Paul could have been forgiven for pinching himself as he was mobbed by A-list stars at his film’s première in the glitzy French resort.
But the dad of one is learning to take this sort of thing in his stride since he was plucked from a life of deprivation and crime to star in The Angels’ Share.
A huge critical success, it has already been hailed as the new Full Monty. And Paul’s natural acting talent has impressed the industry’s top names. So much so that the former jailbird has just finished filming steamy love scenes with Holly­wood star Scarlett Johansson for a new sci-fi movie.
The gorgeous actress plays a man-eating alien who tries to seduce Paul’s character.
“At first I was really nervous to meet her but she’s nice and laid back, she made me feel relaxed and confident,” he ­reveals. “She was fantastic and down to earth. She was asking me about my wee kid and my background. And she gave me some nice ­comments about my timing which boosted my confidence.
“I play a happy guy who’s out on the pull. I’m chatting Scarlett up and she seduces me.”
Paul may even have even used his own chat-up lines on film.
“I can’t actually remember because I was a wee bit p***ed at the time! We were having a drink ­together. We had the script and then you just fling in the odd line yourself. Y’know, ‘You have beautiful eyes’. It was great fun but to be honest I get more starstruck with my football team Glasgow Celtic.”
It’s a typically down-to-earth ­approach from a man who just months ago was still trapped in a life of drugs, crime and violence.
So when it came to playing ­Robbie in The Angels’ Share, a lad in trouble with the law who is determined to make his life better for the sake of his new-born son, he had plenty to draw on.
“Robbie’s story is very similar to my past. I was like Robbie, like many young kids growing up, there’s millions of ­Robbies out there.
“Like any other boy from Glasgow I was involved in gangs and alcohol and taking drugs. Just a rough, rough life.
Read more (with photos) at The Mirror 

Sunday Mail 2012 Great Scot awards

The entertainment category was won by feel-good film The Angels’ Share, which scooped the Jury Award at the Cannes Film Festival. It was written by Paul Laverty, directed by Ken Loach and stars Paul Brannigan.
Source: Daily Record
 

English director Ken Loach reveals how he loves filming Scotland's working class stars

The man behind The Angels' Share and Sweet Sixteen says he wants to make one final film in his 'second home'
He’s the Englishman who has been a voice for the plight of Scotland’s working class in six of our best movies.
But the 76-year-old Ken Loach is finding it harder and harder to make movies and wishes his American counterpart Woody Allen, who is the same age, would stop so that he can retire too.
But the softly spoken director hopes he can make at least one more film in his “second home”. He said: “I hope there’s another Scottish film. It’s always possible but I’m not sure how many are left in me.
“Directing is a young man’s job really. I wish Woody Allen would stop and then I could stop.
“But I enjoy making films. I like to keep out of trouble and off the streets.”
Ken, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire may be best known for the film Kes but in Scotland, he is loved for his gritty portrayal of real life and for discovering talent, often using real people rather than actors for key roles.
Robert Carlyle, who’d then appeared in Taggart and The Bill, starred in his 1991 film Riff-Raff, as did Peter Mullan, whose harrowing portrayal of a recovering alcoholic in 1998’s My Name is Joe won him the best actor award at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Loach then discovered former footballer Martin Compston as the star of his 2002 film Sweet Sixteen. He also gave a role to Gary Maitland in the film and used him again in this year’s The Angels’ Share. Sweet Sixteen also gave William Ruane and Annmarie Fulton their big break, both going on to River City.
William has worked with Ken a further three times – appearing in 2005 film Tickets (which also featured Compston and Maitland and saw three directors creating interlocking stories about different groups of people on a train to Rome), his Irish movie The Wind That Shakes the Barley, and The Angels’ Share.
The director’s 2004 Scots film Ae Fond Kiss gave Atta Yaqub his shot at stardom. And Ken’s latest discovery is Paul Brannigan, the star of The Angels’ Share.
But try to pat Ken on the back, for not only making films in Scotland but giving us some of our finest actors, and he tries to dodge it by wishing he could give more people the opportunity that being in a film can bring.
His most recent star Paul, for example, has been in jail and had to deal with both parents being heroin addicts.
The fledging actor has even claimed that Ken saved his life by giving him the role.
Ken, who has been making socially conscious films since 1966’s television play Cathy Come Home and the 1969 film Kes, said: “There are many people we would like to have had in The Angels’ Share and we just didn’t have the parts.
“Paul is a bright lad and he would have found a way but the sad thing is that people need a stroke of luck out of the blue, which making a film is. And you can never plan for that.
“So many kids just won’t get that and will fail and not do as well as they could. That is in the hundred thousands through Scotland and the rest of Europe. It’s a real tragedy.
“There are people that are growing up with no secure financial future and no chance of bringing up a family in any kind of security, not even finding a place to live.
“Every day they are talking about cutting their benefits, cutting jobs, cutting this and that. It’s shocking that we have allowed it to happen.
“Not that the Tories are vicious. They are vicious. That’s their class. What is shocking is that the people who should represent working people have allowed them to happen without any fight. Of all the main things, that makes me the most angry.”
Read more at Daily Record 

The Angels' Share

Release Date: 15 November 2012

Starring Paul Brannigan, John Henshaw, Gary Maitland.
Directed by Ken Loach.
Classification: MA15+, 105 mins.
Official Site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcQIvmR21VU
Country: UK, France.

Robbie, a young father facing prison, is determined to give his newborn son a better life – but he must first turn his own life around. Veteran director Ken Loach (Kes, Sweet Sixteen, The Wind that Shakes the Barley) creates an appealing comedy out of the challenges and opportunities that Robbie faces in meeting up with three other unemployed former criminals and from discovering he has a fine nose for whisky.
Source: State Cinema

DVD: The Angels' Share (15)(review)

"You're just a wee thug," claims a distraught mother about Robbie (Paul Brannigan), a scrawny Glaswegian who is desperate to escape his bleak environment for his baby son, and his caring girlfriend.

Thankfully, John Henshaw's compassionate community service supervisor is on hand to help, instilling in Robbie a passion for whisky. It turns out the scallywag has a nose for it. The Angel's Share begins as a tale of grinding poverty and savagery before becoming a much softer, more palatable, Ealing-style comedy caper.
Source: Independent

Billy Connolly talks about 'Gulliver's Travels'

Billy Connolly and fellow cast members Jack Black and Emily Blunt recently spoke to the folks over at Bleeding Cool about working on Gulliver's Travels, which opened in the US on Christmas Day. A brief quote is below, and you can read the full interview at the source.

Did Connolly enjoy being a king? He said:

It’s terrific to be the king. I’ve been the king for a long time, it’s a joy. It’s an absolute joy to swan… So little is asked of you. You get the sparkliest uniforms and sword and you just swan around. It’s fabulous. I tried to be a kind of Prince Charlesy king. I think if he was a king he’d be a jolly casual sort of king and so I tried to be him. I rather like him.

Kevin McKidd promotes 'Bunraku' at Fantastic Fest

Kevin, Josh Hartnett, and director Guy Moshe gave some red carpet interviews about working on Bunraku at Fantastic Fest 2010.

Did you do this movie during hiatus?

Kevin McKidd: "Funnily enough, I did this just after - this is how long ago we did this movie - I did this movie just after we wrapped Journeyman. This was two and a half years ago. It was pre-Grey’s Anatomy. In fact, I got the phone call about Grey’s Anatomy while we were in Bucharest and I asked Guy, 'What do you think?' I was asking all these guys whether I should do it or not. So that’s when it dates from."

How much time did you have to train?

Kevin McKidd: "I would say I started pre-training because I had to learn not only the martial arts side of it. A lot of my stuff is to do with manipulating the cane and the sword that my character uses. So I had to learn a lot of cane work and that kind of martial arts cane work, but also Guy had the idea of Killer #2 of being this kind of Fred Astaire, almost this dancer who can sort of tap dance his way through killing people. So I had to take dance class for a month before we even went to Bucharest, just to kind of make myself less flat footed than I actually am. Then once we got there, we probably had another two or three weeks and then during the filming, when we weren’t actually on the stages doing scenes, we had time off, the stunt crew would just grab us and strong-arm us into a rehearsal hall where we’d be drilling fights for the next sequence and the next. So it wasn’t like we had months and months to train. We had to actually do it as we were going."

It doesn’t sound like an indie movie.

Kevin McKidd: "It was like one of the highest end indie movies I’ve ever been a part of. I don't know what the budget was but, absolutely, it felt like a studio film with an independent sensibility, which is very cool."

How did it feel to wear the costume?

Kevin McKidd: "Me and Guy kind of sat down, we said we wanted this guy to be like Fred Astaire and that kind of stuff but we want him to be deconstructed instead of angular, so we came up with this weird waistcoat and stuff. It was good because we came to the vision of what he looked like together, little pink glasses with no stems and stuff. Actually, I decided that my character should have fully manicured nails at all times so I had to go to the nail salon once every two weeks to get new acrylic nails attached so I had these perfect acrylic nails that women have normally. I had to maintain that during the whole shooting because he wanted this feel of this guy who’s a perfectly coifed killing machine. It was actually tough to wear those nails, man." [Fred Topel via Kevin McKidd Online]

'Law and Order: SVU' sneak peak

Some new Law & Order: SVU clips with Henry Ian Cusick have been unveiled. Part of the now extended third clip was released a few weeks back. Law & Order's two-hour season premiere airs on September 22.








You can also check out some of Henry Ian Cusick's interviews over at MovieWeb.com and The Daily Record. Excerpts from these interviews are below.

How does your character and Benson become involved in your episodes? And is he really in to her because they say he's going to be a romantic interest or is there an ulterior motive there?

Henry Ian Cusick: Very early on in the episode you see Benson and my character, Erik Weber, who is a graphic artist; you see them meet and there's a bit of flirtation. Certainly from Erik Weber's point of view he's very interested in Benson and I think it becomes a bit of a rivalry between Stabler and Weber. So yes, there's definitely some - there's definitely an interest -- a strong interest -- from Erik Weber and the Benson character, yeah. [MovieWeb.com]

And although he's got a two episode guest role in Law & Order SVU, he's not wanting to jump into something too big or too long which won't compare to the fun and adventure he had in one of the most talked about shows of the past decade.

He said: "I've learned that this experience is a one-off, and it won't happen again.

"I'm sad to see it end because it's been such a beautiful experience. I feel like I'm part of television history. [Rick Fulton]

Alan Cumming discusses his episode of 'Who Do You Think You Are'

Alan Cumming's episode of genealogy series, Who Do You Think You Are airs on BBC1 next Monday in the UK. In the episode, he learns about his grandfather, who served in World War II. The Daily Record has the full story.

HOLLYWOOD star Alan Cumming's grandfather was a military hero who shot himself during a game of Russian roulette.

...Alan's maternal grandfather Tommy Darling was a decorated war veteran who served his country with the Cameron Highlanders during World War II.

Tommy was a motorcycle courier who won a medal for bravery after taking ammunition to frontline troops as Nazi commander Rommel's tanks bore down on the French town of Dunkirk.

He also fought the Japanese as they made their assault on India in the Battle of Kohima in 1944.

But he paid the price for his courage, suffering serious shrapnel injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. [Paul English]

Ewan McGregor talks 'Beginners'

The LA Times has a fascinating write-up about indie drama Beginners, which debuts at the Toronto International Film Festival this week. The profile focuses more on writer-director Mike Mills and the semi-autobiographical nature of the film, but there are a few quotes from Ewan McGregor as well:

McGregor described Mills as "the director I've been looking for for a long time," no minor statement from an actor who has worked with, among others, Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, George Lucas and Michael Bay. McGregor likened his working relationship with Mills to the one he had early in his career with Danny Boyle, when they made three films together.

"I tried to get a flavor of him, but he never really wanted me to play him," said McGregor from London of the challenge of taking on Mills' role in the filmmaker's own story. "And I did in the end do a kind of version of Mike, there's some physical things I suppose that come from him, but there's something more. What I tried to capture, which I hope I did, is his spirit. He's quite a sensitive, interesting man." [Mark Olsen]

First promo of 'Grey's Anatomy' season 7

The promo comes courtesy of COforever1 (via Kevin McKidd Online). The seventh season of Grey's Anatomy is set to premiere on September 23 on ABC - an excerpt from a recent TV Guide interview with Kevin McKidd is below. There are some spoilers in the interview.

TVGuide.com: There's always a lot of baby talk on Grey's. Do you think that could be in the cards for Cristina and Owen?
McKidd: I think that would be interesting. I know there was originally a storyline that ended up being changed in Season 1, where Cristina got pregnant and they were going to have a baby, but they decided to save that for later. I wouldn't say that isn't going to happen, because we almost started that storyline a few seasons ago, but decided it was too much too soon. A lot of comedy would come out of that seeing the two of them face that together, because they're kind of an odd couple, especially as parents. [Natalie Abrams]

On the set of 'Decoy Bride'

The folks over at For Argyll have a pretty extensive look at what shooting is like for David Tennant, and the rest of the cast and crew on the set of Decoy Bride. You can check out on-set photos and the entire article here; For Argyll does reveal that the movie will likely screen at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

Photo by Rebecca Martin

New interview with John Barrowman

A short interview with John Barrowman was published over at The Scotsman yesterday. An excerpt of John's interview is below:

"Have I ever been the shy retiring type?" he ponders. "Never. Not since the day I was born," he replies, triumphantly. "When I came out of my mother the doctor had to slap me to get me to shut up. At school the teachers let me get away with murder because I was able to talk my way out of anything."

"The first day I set foot on Wisteria Lane I remembered when I was that little boy who'd moved from Glasgow at nine years old and was taken on a vacation to Universal Studios in California. I was driven around what would become Wisteria Lane, which was then the road where they filmed The Munsters and various Doris Day movies, all the same houses are still there. And so for me as an adult to stand on that street knowing that I was there as a boy, dreaming that one day I would be involved in this business, well that was a really weird sensation. [Tim Randall]

Alan Cumming nominated for an Emmy

Alan Cumming was nominated earlier today in the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series category for his role in The Good Wife. Alan had been cast as a series regular earlier this year. The award ceremony will take place on August 29 live on ABC. Alan talked to USA Today about his Emmy nomination:

"I didn't believe it was going to happen. My jet lag is why I didn't pay more attention. The show is such a nice group of people and other actors have already emailed me. The creators of the show have emailed me and my husband. You get a big outpouring of warm fuzziness all around you," says Cumming.

Better yet, Cumming starts off the second season of the show as a series regular. And he knows "absolutely nothing" about what's coming up on Wife. "We start shooting next week and we don't have the scripts yet. I would probably spill the beans very easily," he says. [Donna Freydkin]

Kevin McKidd at the 2010 Roma Fiction Fest + new interview

Kevin McKidd appeared at the Roma Fiction Fest earlier today. Video of his appearance is posted below:



Kevin also did an interview with Metro.co.uk (via mckidd_fans) to promote Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which is now out on DVD. The interview was published on Sunday, and you can read the full thing at the source.

Why did you do the Percy Jackson film?

The director Chris Columbus sent me a letter saying: ‘I really see you as being part of this, I’m a fan of your stuff.’ In this business you’re so used to rejection it’s very flattering when someone says they want to work with you. I’ve also never done a family film before and I’ve got kids aged seven and nine so it was nice for them to be able to see something I’ve done.

What films did you like when you were a child?

Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Star Wars, ET especially. Something about that story broke my heart as a boy and really made me want to become an actor.

How’s Grey’s Anatomy going?

It’s still one of the top dramas in America and doesn’t show any signs of losing popularity. It’s nice to know your job isn’t going anywhere for a little while.

New interview with Martin Compston

Martin Compston did an interview with the Daily Record right before the Edinburgh International Film Festival opens this Wednesday. Two of Martin's films will be screened at the festival - SoulBoy and Donkeys. SoulBoy premieres on Saturday at Cineworld and Donkeys premieres next Sunday at The Filmhouse. The full interview was published yesterday:

Edinburgh comes at a good time for Martin. He is taking a six-week break, having had minor surgery on an ear complaint and cracking a rib filming upcoming prison drama Ghost.

But he'll soon be setting his sights on cracking America.

Having enjoyed mainstream success in the UK with The Disappearance of Alice Creed, the film is about to open across the pond and he's been signed up by the same US agent who represents Avatar's Sam Worthington.

He said: "I've been lucky enough to work with some great directors and I don't want to throw that away by doing one big horrible big budget film.

"I'm just taking my time and trying to pick good projects."

He has no shortage of offers. He's already got the slasher horror Comedown in the bag. When his ear and rib mend, he is off to learn how to surf for buddy movie In Between The Waves. [Steve Hendry]

A quick chat with John Barrowman

What's on TV points us to this very short interview with John Barrowman:

John Barrowman talks about his guest role as a baddie in Desperate Housewives (C4, Wednesday, June 2)...

Will you be watching yourself on TV?
“I always read about actors saying they can’t bear to watch themselves on TV, but I’m not like that. I love watching myself! I’ll be getting the popcorn out and the vodka tonics and I will be jumping up and down. When I saw it in America with my friends, we had cocktails and they all applauded when I walked on screen. I am so chuffed by it.”

How did it come about?
“The exec producer Marc Cherry loved my character Captain Jack in Torchwood. He contacted me when I was in LA last April doing something for Children In Need. We had a meeting and he told me he wanted to have me sooner rather than later. It’s unbelievable when somebody from one of the top TV shows in the world tells you that!”

What was filming like?
“It is filmed at Universal Studios which I remember visiting as a kid – they filmed shows like The Munsters there. I never dreamed I’d one day be working there!”

And how did you get on with the cast?
“I play Angie Bolen’s long lost ex who's been looking for Angie for 20 years and we got on great. I was like her long-lost brother. And Eva Longoria liked me because I have a naughty sense of humour.”

You lived in America from the age of nine. Will you go back?
“I really enjoyed working in America. I had a lot of fun and I got to see lots of family and friends - including Russell T Davies - but after nine weeks of filming, I was ready to come back. The UK is my home, I have a lovely place on the Welsh coast which I share with my partner Scott. It’s in a cul-de-sac and my back garden goes down on to the beach.”

John Hannah promotes 'Spartacus: Blood And Sand'

John Hannah has been busy doing press for Spartacus: Blood And Sand in the UK (it premiered tonight on Bravo) and some of his interviews are below.

John on Frost Over the World:


John on GMTV:


An excerpt from an interview with Digital Spy:

What attracted you to Spartacus?
"As an actor it was completely different from everything else I'd done, in terms of the content and in terms of the character. It was nearer theatre than any kind of contemporary TV that I'd done, and I think the American cable channels have been doing some fantastic work recently with things like Rome, The Sopranos and Deadwood and stuff like that. It's very much in that kind of range. So it was a no-brainer really. Once I'd read the script I was desperate to do it."

Can you explain a little bit about your character Batiatus?
"Historically the lanistas [gladiator managers] were looked down upon by society while being deeply revered, in the way that football managers are. A little bit like brothel keepers, they were sort of needed but you would not necessarily want to be seen with them in daylight. Like second-hand car salesmen, once they do well enough these guys want to become a little bit more establishment. As the show develops, Batiatus does start seeking higher positions. And he'll do anything to get there. He's incredibly manipulative, incredibly evil. At the same time, he's also a nice guy - he's trying to have a kid with his missus and he wants to have a family and all of that, but he'll think nothing of killing competitors and getting rid of them in any way that's required for him to get on."

You're well-known for your roles in romantic comedies. Do you think people will be surprised by your role in this show?
"I hope so. I'm sure people are savvy enough these days to realise that actors as individuals would like to do different things in the same way that they don't want to see the same people doing the same things all the time. And also just as a TV viewer myself I'm kind of bored with the same kind of things being on TV. This is something incredibly different-looking, incredibly different in content. And I think that's why it's been such a hit. I think the TV-watching public in this country are sick of everything being a bit soapy, a bit detectivey. Lawyers and doctors and hospitals and pubs..." [Catriona Wightman]

Henry Ian Cusick talks the 'Lost' finale

The Lost cast has been doing some promotion for the series finale, and Henry Ian Cusick talked to the press at an ABC/Disney press event on Sunday.

Henry talks about the final day of shooting:



Excerpts from two interviews (via Cusickgallery.net) are below.

You can check out the full interview with ComingSoon at the source:

Q: With three shows left is there anyway that the finale is going to satisfy all of the fans?
Cusick: Probably not all of the fans. I think that's an impossible task.

Q: Do you think it will please general "Lost" fans?
Cusick: What's great about the show is that there are so many talking points. There are so many walks of life getting together to talk about the show and so many issues to be brought up and that's exactly what the ending will bring up. People will be talking about it for weeks afterwards and that's what the show has always done.

...Q: Was there a question of the show that you had as fans that did get answered?
Cusick: There was a point in the show where I thought I don't care about the answers anymore. I knew what I wanted from the ending and what I wanted the message to be. I like this thing of it coming from a place of love and coming from a place of no fear. All of a sudden it just seemed a lot bigger. Small questions I just thought I don't care anymore. I don't care why I can see the future. It didn't matter. It just seemed to be bigger than that. [Heather Newgen]

Interview with HitFix:

Actually, there's some confusion as to whether or not Cusick does, in fact, know how "Lost" ends.

"I think in act 11 there is a secret scene that no one got," Cusick says. "Only the people who are in it, but nobody knows. Everyone is keeping very quiet about it."

...How did the writers explain Desmond's place in the season to the actor?

"They phone you up and say they don't need you. Oh, okay," Cusick recalls. "Basically the phone call was 'We don't need you except for the final seven [episodes] but you'll get a really cool storyline.' You have to just trust them." [Daniel Fienberg]

On the set of 'Coriolanus' with Gerard Butler and Brian Cox

The Guardian has a profile piece on Coriolanus and gives us a look at the Belgrade set with Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, and Ralph Fiennes. It's a pretty great read and you can check out the entire article at the source. Photos via the Daily Mail.

A dozen or so soldiers are sprawled in front of a communist-era block of flats in a factory town outside the Serbian capital, Belgrade. The building has seen better days, graffiti snaking the walls, brickwork crumbling. The soldiers are none too pretty, either: a mean-looking hairy crew in dirty uniforms. Up marches their general and grunts at them. Behind the general's bushy beard and mirrored sunglasses is the actor Gerard Butler, and the soldiers are extras playing his troops. As he stomps off, grinning, to start the day's filming in a nearby flat, one of them pulls out a sudoku book. Not so tough after all – but film sets, like wars, involve a lot of waiting around.

...Representing the Brits are Brian Cox, playing a rascally political fox, James Nesbitt and Paul Jesson. [Cath Clarke]

First look at 'The Conspirator'

USA Today has a first look at Robert Redford's The Conspirator and includes some film stills featuring James McAvoy.

James McAvoy (Atonement) stars as a decorated Union soldier who reluctantly agrees to defend one of the accused, boarding-house owner Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), whose son was the lone conspirator to escape the manhunt.

"There was a question of whether she was complicit, guilty by association, or even more guilty," says Redford, who directs but doesn't star in the movie. "The lawyer that defended her didn't want to defend her. He was a Union soldier who became a lawyer." His contempt for the suspect gives way to a fear that she is being prosecuted solely to bring her fugitive son out of hiding.

..."He barely survived the war. He was very heroic and won medals for bravery in the field, and comes back and wants to go back into law, and right away he's pulled into this case because no one else will defend this woman," Redford says.

...The Conspirator is independently financed and doesn't yet have a distributor. It's the first project made by the American Film Co., which plans to create historical dramas. [Anthony Breznican]

You can get even more information on The Conspirator over at the American Film Company.

All photos by Claudette Barius, ©The American Film Company Productions

Martin Compston promotes 'Alice Creed'

The Disappearance of Alice Creed opens on April 30 in the UK and there are two new interviews with Martin Compston.

Martin Compston and his co-star Gemma Arterton talk about working on the film.



There's also a profile in The Times that you can read in full here. Part of the interview with Martin is posted below:

At about this time Compston even gave LA a second shot. He moved there, in the winter of 2007, and worked as a volunteer in a free health clinic on Beverly Boulevard. “I told everyone: ‘I’m going out there not to look for acting work, just to see if I can live there’. ” He says that his time there was “mad”, and that working at the clinic was often “horrible” — “There’d be a guy having a heart attack right in front of me, but because he couldn’t fill out his form nobody would touch him!”

Ultimately, he says, he planned a second professional assault on LA too, but the success of Alice Creed got in the way, and he hasn’t stopped working here since. He’s busy solidly for the entire year, and some of his forthcoming roles include playing a porn star in the crime film Pimp, a dancer in the drama Soul Boys and an ex-convict who has, yes, a raunchy sex scene in the horror movie Comedown. [Kevin Maher]

Kevin McKidd writes about moving to LA & 'Percy Jackson'

Kevin wrote an article for Finch’s Quarterly Review Issue 7 (via mckidd_fans). In it he "writes about his move from Scotland, via Rome, to Los Angeles, where he has now settled and introduced haggis." Part of his article is posted below, and you can read the full thing over at the source.

...I feel very blessed with the opportunities I have had – to work with the incredible cast in Grey’s Anatomy and to be a key player in a feature film like Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

...Most of my scenes are with Sean Bean, who plays Zeus. I had never worked with Sean and it was an interesting experience as, initially, he comes across as reserved. Our first scene was at the top of the Empire State Building and I had to walk up to him (we play brothers in the film) and say, “Zeus”, and he turns to me and says, “Poseidon.” For some reason, on the very first take, these two lines seemed to tickle us and we just couldn’t get through them – there was just something so absurd about Sean Bean and me pretending to be Greek Gods, so it took us quite a while to get started. He is much more of a giggler than I would have imagined! Sean is from the North of England so it was quite amusing to have a Scotsman and a Northerner playing Greek Gods in an American blockbuster shooting in Vancouver.

When you get a bunch of British actors together there is a feeling that you could all be doing a play in some dodgy theatre above the pub. Everybody falls back to that same attitude. None of us works behind a desk for the very reason that we wanted to do something silly for a living. It’s always a laugh, and you are not allowed to take it too seriously.

Incidentally Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief will be out on DVD and Blu-ray on June 22 in the US and on July 12 in the UK.

New interview with Douglas Henshall

Douglas Henshall recently did an interview over at ReelScotland and he talked about upcoming films How I Was Stolen by the Germans and The Eagle of the Ninth. An excerpt is below and you can head on over to ReelScotland for the full interview. Thanks so much to the folks at ReelScotland for sharing this with us:

Due later this year, Henshall will play German officer, Werner Kraus in Serbo-Croation film How I Was Stolen by the Germans.

“My wife is Croatian and we have a friend who is a producer in Belgrade and he was in London saying ‘how do you fancy coming to Serbia to do a film there?’ I said ‘sure’ so he sent me the script where I play a German officer in World War Two who falls for this little boy. The boy doesn’t know who his father is and ends up wanting this German officer to be his dad. It’s a very nice story.”

“I don’t speak German and (director) Misa (Radivojevic) is 90% deaf and doesn’t speak English, but I had a number of interpreters and everyone wanted to help. But I had a nice time, Misa is a proper auteur, it was a very creative place to work.”

...Another film due later this year is Kevin MacDonald’s epic, The Eagle of the Ninth. Unlike rival film, Neil Marshall’s Centurion, The Eagle of the Ninth will focus on Channing Tatum’s attempts to find his lost legion’s golden emblem in honour of his late father.

...“I have a small part, the first fifteen minutes, if that. I haven’t seen it or done any ADR yet so I might not even last that long! The chief of my part is a chariot race through the forrest with Channing Tatum and I just had the best time. The chariots were amazing, for the real hairy stuff they had stuntmen, but I got to do most of it myself. I had such a ball.” [Richard Bodsworth]