IF THE SLIPPER FITS...

National man of mystery: He denies rumours that he's the next James Bond and avoids life in the public eye but, with four films coming out this year, Fife boy and Hollywood hit Dougray Scott will be finding it hard to keep a low profile. (Jan Moir, 11 May 2003, Sunday Herald)

At the age of 37, Dougray Scott is the kind of serious minded ac-tor who wants to talk about challenges and passion and energy and emotional memories and being 'in the moment' rather than anything about himself.

'I choose not to live my life in the public eye, that is just the kind of person I am,' he says, which is fair enough. However, cynics might say that his feelings about this would sound much more authentic had they been relayed by carrier pigeon from his home on a, say, remote Atlantic crag rather than in person before having his photograph taken for the cover of this magazine.

Yet such is the lot of the shy modern movie star; flushed out of the shadows by the need to promote their work while desperately clinging to the shreds of anonymity which make their lives bearable. And, as one of the most successful Scottish actors of his generation, Scott has managed this better than most. He has made a great many films including big Hollywood numbers such as Enigma, Mission Impossible 2, Deep Impact and Regeneration, yet he can still walk the streets of west London -- where he lives with his wife and twin children -- with an unusually high degree of comfort and obscurity.

On his regular trips home to Glenrothes to see his family or to Easter Road to watch Hibs play -- he still has a season ticket and has seen them about eight times this season -- the same thing happens. This would all change, of course, if the rumours, which persistently put his name in the frame as a possible future James Bond, ever turned out to be true. Are they true?

'I have heard the rumour but that's all it is; a rumour,' he says carefully. 'It would be very flattering to be considered as a James Bond but there is no substance to the rumour. As far as I am concerned, I have not been asked to play him.'

But would he, if he was?

'I don't know. I might think about it,' he shrugs. 'It would be interesting. The problem is big Sean was so fantastic as James Bond that the role has become synonymous with him, although I do think Pierce Brosnan does a brilliant job. But it would be very difficult for me to cut underneath Sean Connery. And James Bond is so ... huge. I don't know what I could do after that.'

If you're obligated to rent a chick flick for the Mrs. today, or have young daughters, Mr. Scott stars in an inexplicably underrated post-feminist retelling of the Cionderella story, Ever After, with Drew Barrymore. And, though it's not as good as the book, you might be able to sneak Enigma in under the radar if you pretend you thought it was just a romance, rather than a spy thriller.


MORE:

    -INFO: Ever After (1998) (Internet Movie Database)

    -FILMOGRAPHY: Charles Perrault (1628-1703) (Imdb)

    -FILMOGRAPHY: Andy Tennant (Imdb.com)

    -FILMOGRAPHY: Drew Barrymore (Imdb.com)

    -FILMOGRAPHY: Dougray Scott (Imdb.com)

    -REVIEW ARCHIVES: Ever After (1998) (Mrqe.com)

    -REVIEW ARCHIVES: Ever After (1998) (IMDB)

    -REVIEW: of Ever After (James Berardinelli , Reel Views)

    -REVIEW: of Ever After (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

    -REVIEW: of Ever After (Michael Elliot, Movie Parables)

    -REVIEW: of Ever After (Dave Rettig, Christian Spotlight on the Movies)

    -REVIEW: of Ever After (Plugged In)

    -REVIEW: of Ever After (David Bruce, Hollywood Jesus)

    -REVIEW: of Ever After (Stephen Holden, NY Times)

    -REVIEW: of Ever After (Kenneth Turan, LA Times)

    -REVIEW: of Ever After (Mick LaSalle, SF chronicle)

    -REVIEW: of Ever After (Liz Braun, Toronto Sun)

    -REVIEW: of Ever After (Kevin Lally, Film Journal International)

    -REVIEW: of Ever After (Charles Taylor, Salon) Posted by Orrin Judd at May 11, 2003 11:40 AM