That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Dougray Scott

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

Dougray Scott joins Gaby for a chat about his brilliant career, AI, Summerwater and much more. They discuss his love of books and storytelling, his latest acting roles and how much happier he is since he gave up drinking. Dougray has been asked questions in interviews recently that were directly from Chat GPT - and he could spot them a mile away, just like he could spot AI music when it was played to him - and so they discuss the use of this new technology within the entertainment industry, and how it is effecting younger generations. He also brings in an object that makes him smile and tells Gaby the story behind it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's that Gabby Rosslin podcast, Gabby Rosslin podcast. Do Grace Scott, we just worked out that the first time we met you were in Soldier Soldier, and now we're going to talk about summer water. Quite a few things in between have happened. Quite a few things, yeah. Wow, wow, wow. Just very interesting. Before we started recording, we started talking about, AI, and you just said that you get sent questions when you're doing on the PR trail,

questions that have been chat GDP or something. Chat GDP or AI generated, yeah. I mean, it's so impersonal because this is obviously one-on-one with two human beings talking in front of each other and our conversation is based on our past meetings, on the world around us. AI generate, the questions that are generated by AI, are based on sort of

a generic sort of search of Google about me and my career and it's really quite impersonal it seems like there's a barrier there and like we were talking about how there was a film that came out with an AI generated actor

female or was it a female and you can just tell immediately it's like watching films that have been generated by AI which I've seen a few in the past and they're just so different you just don't feel like connection. Yes, it loses its heart. It does.

And then music, there was some band that sort of managed to pull the wool over someone's eyes, about it, there was sort of this sort of 70s band, sort of sounding band. And I listened to it and I thought, that sounds so kind of just middle of the road. And there's no sort of distinction there. There's no identity there. And then there was some lost music that I stumbled across on, I think it was Spotify. I don't know. It might have been YouTube. I can't remember. Anyway, and I'll listen to it and I thought, that doesn't sound real.

That sounds, and of course it turns out that it's AI and they're saying, oh, these lost tapes from the 70s or the 60s. And I just thought, I don't think it is. And so I think we're living in an age where it's a little bit scary. And I was just saying to you before that if you were born in the 1900s and you grown up with the technology, during the Industrial Revolution and the UK, or anywhere in the world, and you, you know, you lived until, let's just say you lived until you was 75, you were born in 1900. Technology sort of didn't really change a massive amount.

But if you were born in the 1960s like I was, and you have lived through into 2025 where you are now, the changes have been extraordinarily massive. If you think about the technology, we're talking about AI, we're talking about the computers. And computers originally, of course, were invented by, let's just say, the first computer was Alan Turing. Because we're talking about Enigma. And that kind of based on him. And it was all very sort of extraordinary what he did. And of course it was all about, you know,

breaking the codes of the Enigma machine that the Germans were using in the Second World War. It was a sort of good thing that he was doing. And now it's been used for nefarious means, I think, because our lives have been taken away from us by technology. and I don't know when I'm really old-fashioned or whether I'm just a stick in the mud or whether I'm just terrified of technology

but I'm just not very good at it but it's not about not being very good at it I mean I think in many ways that we have to embrace it and personally I think I have my husband is the opposite he's wary of it I have embraced it

but what I do see is that it's taking away I'm going to use the word again heart. I think a lot of young people who are, and we're very aware of the rise in anxiety, of the whole manoeverse, all the, the, social media, the everything. Yeah. And it's becoming, and the loneliness is increasing. So all these young people are just sitting there with their phones in front of their faces and thinking that I like means that they've got a friend and they're not communicating with people. And that worries me. And actually, that's where what you do, uh,

film and television and all and theatre as well, but film and television, so important because you give us an insight and you're real and I don't want it to be AI. You give us an insight into the world. Well, I don't want to be AI either and I'm happy to be involved in an industry that is really about storytelling, about you sort of reflecting other people's lives through the course or through the lens of a writer and they tell a story and I read it and I respond to it because I feel connected to it if it's something that I'm, you know,

that I respond to. And if I then, that manifests itself into a play, a television show or a movie, then you make it and you hope that other people can see in your story their own lives as well. And that's what the whole point of literature about storytelling, about that aspect of life. The arts industry is all about, whether it's painting as well.

You know, you look at an Edward Munch painting. and you go, you look at the scream and you go, that's how I felt when I was 21. I didn't know what I was doing with my life or where I was going to go or what was happening or in my darkest periods of my life, you know, I recognize that or whether you're talking about an egonchila

or any great painter, you recognize your own life in that painting. And of course, it could be impressionistic or it could be, you know, any kind of form of painting and you want to connect to that painting. But that's how I think that AI is going to, we're going to lose that connection. And that's what, it really does worry me.

Well, one of my biggest fears, I think, for my children is that they don't recognize or they fail to reach a point where they feel comfortable in the world because they understand who they are and they understand their purpose in life and they understand that the purpose in life is not to be famous or to be, someone else's idea of success

it's actually about discovering you know walking down the street and looking at the landscape and just taking joy out of you know out of that or reading a book and reading someone else's words and going that's so familiar to me because that happened to me and we go through our lives

and I think with social media and it's there is a sort of there's there's a danger I think that people measure their own lives by what they see in social media. And you walk along the street and you'll see someone taking a selfie of themselves and it's fake

because they're projecting this image of extreme happiness and it's like this is my life. It's amazing and it's like mate you just walked along the street there and I saw you and you were miserable as sin and suddenly you put on a smile and you're pretending to everyone else that your life is magnificent

and I hope that it is magnificent but there's a fakeness as a sort of... Well it's the filters and know this and that and everything. And I think, again, I'm going to go back to why I think what you guys all do with TV and film is important. Yeah, it is. Because you are giving us an insight into all sorts.

I mean, I love books as well. I absolutely love books as well because you can paint those pictures in your mind. But you just used a word and I'm now dying to know you're talking about success and for your kids to think of success. And I agree, I don't think success is fame. that, you know, when young people say, I just want to be famous, that's not success if you become fame,

but it's the journey or whatever you do. But to you, what is success then? Well, I'll tell you, what my, and it's really simple, my father said to me, when I was very young, he said, son, he says, the definition of success is how happy you are. Yeah. And he was really happy guy.

A wise man. I mean, I'm miserable as sin, but he was so happy. He was like, I mean, he had an interest in life, my dad, because he was born in 1918. So he was old when I was born. And he, the first thing he did was, he left school at 14. He was born in Barhead in Glasgow. Rough background, worked in a blacksmiths.

And then he was a footballer. He played for Queens Park and Pollock Juniors. He did that. And then the Second World War came along and he went and joined and he fought with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in France and then he got injured, sort of got invalided out. He came back and he ended up being a copy boy for the Daily Express. And then he, yeah, and then it doesn't stop there.

And then Hamini's brother, my uncle Tom, got into theatre and they sort of joined this theatre company called the Glasgow Unity Theatre, which was this kind of left-wing socialist theatre company in Glasgow that became very quite well-known. And they did these productions like, Men Should Weep by Ina Lama Stewart. They did The Gorbill story. They did some Sean O'Casey plays, which they took down to London.

My dad only stayed at it for six years. His brother did better than him. But that got me into loving theatre because he used to take me to the sets in Glasgow. So I would watch all these theatre productions in Glasgow. And I fell in love with theatre. That's when I was like 14. And so I did a play at school and that's how I got into theatre. And by reading as well, because I read.

We didn't have many books at home So I would go to the local library And I would just read and read and read And I got into literature And literature, you know, DeH Lawrence Later on, you know, John Irving It was a bit later than that And then George Orwell

And even, you know, Scottish writers as well Robin Jenkins, I remember reading The Corn Gatherers Books wonderful because you can paint those pictures for yourself Have you ever been in any books that you'd read when you were younger that have then been made into films? And you thought, wow, I'm in my book. I'm in my head, as it were.

I just did this thing recently that we're reading for my son. I've got a 10-year-old son. And we're reading these Crookhaven books and suddenly they offer me the series of it. So I just finished the first season of Crookhaven, which is about this school for Crooks. And I play this, the best way to describe him as a posh fagin. He sort of gathers all these young kids.

kids into this... Your son's going to love this. He loves it. He absolutely loves it. And he's reading it now. They're on the second book, I think. No, but he's going to love that you're actually in the program of the book that he's reading. He's like, yeah, he's, yeah, well, I hope so.

I hope it's good. But it's really about this guy who runs a school called Crookhaven and he brings in all these kids from very dysfunctional, sort of broken families. And he trains them to be spies. And so they go out into the world at MI5, MI6, CIA. whatever and it's really quite a brilliant story. I love that. JJ Concho

who's written them. He's written five or six novels and it's really quite fun. Is it a TV show? It's a TV show yeah, BBC. It hasn't come out yet it comes out in I think February. Okay, I'm sorry to make to do the obvious thing but you are very busy which is fantastic. I mean

you're here to talk about summer water as well which I've watched the first two episodes of Sarah Moss novel, yeah. Again, the novel started off as a novel and I read the novel and the novel was like a stream of consciousness and it's brilliantly written. But that's how it's been made.

It is. It's sort of, I'm watching somebody, it's extraordinary. You don't want to stop. And I know people say that about boxes and things. And I used to love, you and I are old enough to remember the weekly drop of things.

But this, I sort of, once I got it, I wanted to know, I wanted to know, I kept wanting to know, I was in. I was in instantly. Yeah, I mean, it's set in the summer water sort of holiday camp with log cabins in Scotland somewhere, which is kind of familiar to me from growing up in Scotland and going to the Trossacks, it was a kid,

and we kind of went all over, and we stayed in a lot of caravan sites as well on the west coast of Scotland, but there was one place we went to when I was a boy. Anyway, so this story is set there, and my character, David and his wife, Annie, they've been coming to this holiday camp, camp for years since we were, you know, very, very young.

And, of course, there's all these new people come in again and again and again. So it follows the story of all these different families. And my story is that I'm a doctor and married to this woman. I'm not quite sure. Don't say no too many spoilers. No, no, this is what happens. No, I'm not going to tell you what happened. Anyway, but my relationship is with Annie, my wife, and it goes back and forward in time.

I love a time, John. It goes back into my childhood, not childhood, but when he was in his early 20s and he became a doctor in Glasgow. And my son, he plays Gabriel, plays me as a young man, and he's so good. Anyway, so, and it goes back into Annie's life as well. And her sort of past, you know, life when she was younger as well. Shirley Henderson plays Annie. She's brilliant, Shirley Henderson.

She's amazing. I've always wanted to work with her. And I've known about Shirley Henderson since I was, I think, 19. I knew about her. And I've watched her career over the years and always loved her. I thought she was a magnificent actress. And then I went to see her, the girl from the North Country in West End. I was going to say that.

I loved, love, love that. And my God, when she started singing, I was like, fell off my chair. I was like, my God, no longer, she had an extraordinary actress, but she's got the voice of an angel. And anyway, so I, anyway, so we ended up doing this together. and it was a joy from start to finish. But it's very, it's one of those ones that you do, which I love to do, that you find yourself

sort of not pausing it, because I don't like pausing something, but thinking, okay, but that, that is, that's why he's like that. Oh, I see, that's why she's, who's that, though? But how did that happen? He carries a lot of guilt and shame, my character, from things that happened in the past. I think it's safe to say he's a bit of a narcissist and of course narcissists

find it very good at the moment Yes I know There's a lot of narcissists around But it was interesting playing that character Because he's, you know I hope he's nothing like me But it was the voice And my mother came from Kelvin Dale in Glasgow

And that's a kind of lower middle class sort of background And although she didn't have a wealthy upbringing at all, but her voice was very, very middle class. And I wasn't brought up in that bite. I was brought up in a council estate in Fife on the East Coast. And her voice was just so loved my mother. My mother was a magnificent woman in many, many respects. But she, I was so embarrassed when she came into my school.

Oh, my God, because she talked right there. I don't know that my character did have been somewhat. So I thought like the hairs, you know. And I was brought up in the fucking councillor state in Fife. And so, you know, I used to hide because she'd come in. And she sounded too posh, did she? She's not only just a sound posh, she wore this sort of hat and sort of gloves that came up to her elbow. Your mum picked you up from school with hat and gloves on.

She would come to the parents' day and then she would have these, you know, this four sort of leopard skin jacket. It might be real, actually. I love the sound of your mum. She was something else. She was a force of nature of my mother. But she was also, what she did and what I'm forever grateful and will always be grateful to my mother for

was she instilled in me a sense of purpose and a sense of bloody-mindedness and also because it's safe to say that I got into a lot of trouble at school I nearly got expelled five or six times and I asked why or is it? Well, I set fire to the toilets once I got into fights with a lot of rival schools.

I had a combative relationship with my headmaster who despised me. Oh, no. Massively, yeah. He sent letters to my mum saying that I was the worst people he'd ever taught in his entire life and I would amount to nothing in my life and that she should be ashamed of my mother.

Sorry, that's horrific. That's actually horrific. But it's interesting because when I read the letter, because my mother read out to me, I kind of went, well, that didn't phase me. I just thought, well, he's a narcissist, and he's also a sadist. What's a horrible man? He was a horrible man. And now, look, sorry, I don't know if he is still around, but...

No, no, I think he's gone. But he was... But he'd be the sort of person. He wore a cloak. He wore this long black cloak, and he used to call him a Batman, and I stole his cloak once as well. and he would sort of try and pull me out of classes this went on for a long time pull me out of class and sort of

one time they came to get me to go to the headmaster wants to see and I went you know what I don't think that I should and the teacher was like I remember it was Mrs. Cunningham she was in my English teacher and she was great and she taught us and she had the love of literature as well and so I sort of tied in with what I was reading as well

but she said she looked at me she goes I think you should go and see him and I went I'm not going to see him And then eventually he dragged me, got me. Oh, this is horrible. But this isn't time we used to get belted. And I used to get belted most days. No.

You know, they have this thick leather belt with three prongs in it. Do great, this is horrible. This is Scotland. This is what it was like. And I remember why we had this maths teacher as well, and he was pretty sadistic as well. And he loved belting me. And so one day I just grabbed them and I just said,

you belt me again and I walked in. Oh, my. So that was the kind of environment. But actually, you know, all of that that you've been through, I think that is horrific. I have really... Well, it's what everyone else went through. It wasn't particular to me. There was other kids who had problems as well, but I think my head must have particular...

No, it shouldn't be. But he really didn't like me. He really didn't like me at all. And so he really had it out for me. And so my mother instilled with me was a sense of self-love so much. It wasn't that. What it was was a sense of having a... right to occupy the space that you were standing and regardless of what you felt about yourself

because, you know, I'm very flawed human being. I'll be the first one to admit that, but I have a sense of determination within me. Determination is good. They really helped me through to get out of the background that I was brought up in and into that world of acting because, you know, everyone at my school said you can't be an actor because when I was 14 I was like, I'm going to be an actor. And they were like, no, you can't be, you can't do that. But I had some sort of sense and my mother said to me, you know, if that's what you want to do, then that is what you will do. I mean, it is incredible, though. You're saying that's at 14 and that was a few years ago. And now looking at your, you know, you have the most extensive CV biography, whatever

you would call it. You know, it is extraordinary the amount of things that you've done. And the amounts of things that you've still got coming to do and that you will do, that is there a part of you that sits there at home on a Sunday afternoon with your shoes off and just like, hey, look what I've managed to do? I think sometimes you sort of, listen, the older I've got, the more I've been able to be appreciative of what I do have. And I have a lot of gratefulness in my personality. you know I when I was younger I had quite a few demons you know

in this industry which is a hard industry because you sort of you fit it with you get successful as well if you're thrust into the limelight in Hollywood yeah it's sort of I didn't particularly deal with that in the best way you know did you like the fame and the really like the fame I liked working and I still love acting I love creating characters and for me it's always been about being able to jump into someone else's world some characters I play have been similar to me

but some have been completely different you know recently I've done out I played Gordon Brown I played you know an exitonian in my Oxford year I was in you know I played Moriarty and Belich and daughter

I did a movie in German on Netflix because I spoke German at school that was another thing I did that was sort of that I loved and used, you know, recently. But it's always been about being able to, you know, to me the parameters of always, I wanted them to be wide in the acting world because I wanted to be able to do this and I wanted to be able to do that.

And you've done that. And I didn't want to do the same thing. But you've done that. The closest I think I've got to myself was when I did crime, the urban Welsh thing. That was my world. That was where I was kind of brought up And, you know, he's a really good friend of mine Urban Welsh and probably one of my favourite writers of all time

Oh, how wonderful to be able to work on something written by him That was pretty... I mean, that was incredible. It's so, like I said, you know, when I'm going to be chatting to somebody, I deep dive and I go, I read everything and I look at old interviews and I find anything I possibly can hopefully deeper than any blooming AI But, you know, I'd go through all of that.

A lot deeper. Well, you're magnificent. You're magnificent. But then, but then I just, there was no, there's no for a moment that it never seemed that you weren't making the right decision for the next thing you were doing. Was it all very carefully thought through? Because each step, it's like, oh, that makes sense after that. I mean, desperate housewives to whatever, you know, each step. That was a thing.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think that it was really planned, meticulously at all, all I wanted to do was not repeat myself. Well, that's what you did. You didn't. I mean, you said from this to that. Yeah. And it seems to be that you never did, oh, well, he's done that again, or he's done another one like that. They're all

extraordinary breadth of things. Thank you. I mean, I think I've been lucky that I've been afforded the opportunity to play and then Crookhavon I play, you know, I've got lots of a very eclectic mix of friends. And so I sort of draw on all of them when

you know, depending on what I'm doing. Oh, do they spot themselves? So I want a friend of mine, David, I see his name, he might be embarrassed. David Nela Leland, who's the next to Tony? He said he went to school, or if you don't know what that means, he went to slough grammar. And so he's been very useful to me in terms of voice and stuff like that.

But anyway, so he's the character playing Crutkeven, and it's just very posh sort of guy. But to me it's fun as well. acting should be fun also because sometimes it's you delve into the world of Ray Lennox and crime and it's intense and it's you know it's not it's enjoyable from a point of view of the creative side of it but also you know you're going into dark areas

and so it has a lingering effect on you because what you're trying to do in acting is you're trying to authenticate the character that a writer has created and so you bring your own experience of your own life to that character and it's hard I'm not being sort of pretentious here when I say that you have to really kind of give of yourself you have to you know it doesn't cost you nothing as it were but sometimes you you presented with the character it's just great fun to

play you know and the character in Crookhaven is is quite fruity shall we say and in summer water, he's also, you know, you've seen it. And so he's kind of, you know, he's lively and he's got a certain amount of high regard for himself. And he has a lot of fears and a lot of the fears are based on, you know, him being the most important person in the room. So I loved playing that character. So, okay, I mean, you've mentioned the word joy. I mean, this is reasons to be joyful and you've mentioned the word fun. Yes, yes, yes. And the other side of acting is, I I mean, you say you've had some very dark times personally for yourself, but also to be able to escape into those characters

and to be able to have that fun, that must be very important to you as well. Yeah, I mean, I think that it's... Because of the darkness. Yeah, I mean, I think that I'm certainly a lot happier now than I have been, you know, in my past. Oh, that's wonderful. Yes, no, I am. But what a lovely thing to be able to say. Yeah, I'm so much happier, you know, and I have a lot to be grateful for.

And I am very grateful, and that's got a lot to do with many things in my life. But, you know, I'm someone who doesn't, you know, I used to drink a lot when I was younger and other things. And now I don't. And that's great. And that's been a long time where I, you know, where I haven't done any of that stuff. How long have you? 23 years, someone like that. Congratulations.

Thank you very much. And has it, do you have those moments, as lots of my friends do. where they just say, wow, I've done that. Wow, life is better. I don't miss it for a second, let me tell you. My life is immeasurably better. Oh, that's so lovely to hear. I just love it.

But it's not easy for a lot of people. There are a lot of people who fight great. You know, there's lots of things, but, you know, there's many bodies that help and, you know, and that's great. And but I just, you know, listen, I've got so many things in my life to occupy me now. And I'm incredibly busy. That's fantastic. And I'm just grateful. for the opportunities that I get still

to work and create and that and I produce as well and I have a company and that takes up a lot of time and I just I'm so grateful to be in the world of storytelling and to be able to share stories with people and hopefully they'll see it and they'll connect and there's nothing better than someone

I remember doing this TV series quite a few years ago called Father and Son It was set in Manchester about a gangster who'd got out of the world of crime and gone to live in Ireland and then his son he was quite estranged from got involved in a murder in Manchester and so he was drawn back into it

and it was written by Frank D.C., who sadly is no longer with us, but he was an extraordinary writer, Frank, and he lived in Glasgow, he was Irish, and I was quite close to Frank. And to this day, he's probably, you know, him and Irvin are probably my two favourite writers of all time. Anyway, but when we made that series,

it was all about, you know, it's my kind of world, but in Manchester, and people running up to you in the street and grabbing you and saying, that meant so much. Oh. Because you're projecting, you're presenting a world

which perhaps is not shown an awful lot. And so it means a lot to people when they can say, that's my life. That's exactly what I'm saying. And I think with the news, and we don't need to underline what's going on around the world because it's all horrific and very frightening, and there's a lot of darkness. That's why we need the world that you all create. By the way, this is a really odd thing, but I'm just going to throw it in there.

You're going to just give me the one of those looks. I think you should be the next Doctor Who. The next Doctor Who? Really? Yes. Interesting. I did Doctor Who. I did one episode of Doctor Who with Matt Smith. We laughed a lot. I think you should be Doctor Who. Who? I think we should call Russell T. Davis now and say, right, do Grace Scott.

Dr. Who, well, there you go. He's great, Russell T. Davis. I mean, it's a sin was phenomenal. Oh, my word. He's fantastic. He's very, very talented. He's very, very talented. A very nice man. Very, very tall as well. He's a lovely man. He's very nice. He's a chum. I'm going to actually, going to leave him a voice now. Hello, Russell. I've just met the new Doctor Who, and it should be, would you do it? Would you do one of those sort of characters? No, but would you do a character? I mean, you did Moriarty, of course, but, you know, would you do... Did Moriarty, with David D'Ullis, in Sherlock, who's brilliant. He's one of my favourite actors.

I mean, naked, I still think about naked today as an actor, because, you know, I love other actors, and I love being around other actors, and I love, you know, very appreciative of other people's talents. So, okay, you got, right, Magic Wand, okay? Yeah, yeah. It can be any character. Say Doctor Who. You can be any character with any actors.

You've got two actors to choose. Anyone? Go. Right. No, anything. Yeah. Come on. The part and the other actors.

The part, I'm not so sure because if it hasn't been written. But listen, I'm a huge fan of, I've got more of my mates in the acting world. I would say David Threlfall, David Thulellis, Rufus, Sue, receivans.

Okay, so all of you in a show together. In a show together. Maybe David Morrissey as well. David Morrissey, okay, that's it. Okay, I've got, I'm there, right? I love all of them. So you're a very band of...

And then maybe, shall we chuck in Dan D. Lewis as well? Okay, okay. Love Dandie Lewis. Okay, Dan, I call him Daniel, but you can call him Dan. You will, I think there are a lot of people called Dan the man.

But then we've got, let's say, De Niro and Pacino. Oh, Pacino. I've met quite a few. few times. Oh, of course you have. Well, no, please. Sorry. I was terrified to meet De Niro because this guy wanted to meet him to introduce. You've met them both. I met them both, but I was so terrified to meet in De Niro because I was like, he was the guy for me, you know? I mean, Petuno as well and Hoffman and Gene Hackman and all these people were like, no, no, I don't know them. I know

Pacino because he used to, he was friends with my wife. And so, anyway, but... Yes, and what was he like? Oh, so nice. And Robert De Niro? Because you were scared of me. He was quite shy and didn't really speak much to him. But it was, you know, it was De Niro, you know. And he's like, he's done some of the movies that like once upon a time in America, Raging Bill, Mean Streets, Taxi Drive.

So is he going to be in the same thing now with David and David and David? He can come in and be part of it. You've got three Davids and a couple of Dan's. Yeah, I've got three David. Anyone beginning with Dee, in fact, do great, Dan. Do great, Dan. David, David, and David. Yeah. Okay.

And then De Niro. Yeah. I should be so lucky. I've worked with Rufus before and I've worked with David. Oh, he's got, he begins with, oh, you can't have Rufus. I can't have, I can't have it, okay. No, but in your, because you're making your own things as well, with your production company,

yeah, you must, and I know you just keep saying about how you love books, if you see something that you love a book, you read something that you absolutely grab, it grabs you. Yeah. Do you start that then? Do you just go, that's right? Yeah, I mean, there's a, couple that I've done like crime for example started many years before we actually made it because

I was doing a series with a director and a producer and it had gone particularly well and they said we want to do something else with you so I said let's go and meet Irvin because he's a mate of mine and we see so went to Ireland and he said have you read crime and I said I haven't read it because it just come out so we all read it and we all loved it and we couldn't get it made we tried really really hard and and so you know not through any fault of of them and I just said well I'll take the book and I'll and eventually I met the guy who became my partner and my production company Tony and we developed it and eventually it was funny because I was thinking about my mother because everyone said no to everyone said no we can't it's too dark and I was like and I was like

with Tony I was like it's so good it's so good we're going to get this made and we just kept on chipping away and eventually ITV came and said, okay, we want to make it and that's what happened with it, but you've got to be so strong, you'll be bloody mind it. I mean, people say no to you all the time. One of the first movies I did, the director said to me,

not only did he say no, he went not in a million years are you going to get this part and I was like, okay and eventually I got the part. Oh, that's fantastic. Your first film? No, not my first film, but it was one of the, it was ever after. It was, you know, the movie I did with Drew Barrymore.

With true Barrymore. Because all that, I'd done a movie called Twin Town in which I played this quite rough drug addict. That's what I said about. They couldn't be more different. And he was like, no, no. No. No. I don't think so. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. And I was like, okay.

And then eventually, you know, anyway, so through various sort of means, I managed to get the part. I love that. You've got to be, you've got to be teflon. So you've got to be tough. Tough, tough. Not only you've got to be tough. you've got to be just you know

people will say terrible things about you all the time it's like that's why I don't read reviews because even when someone says to me you've got to read this review it's so good and you go like no my instinct is like I don't want to read it because I totally agree because you make the mistake

one day you're sort of your guards down you're feeling in a good mood you wake up in the morning and you click on the email where they've sent you and you go I would just give it a quick look and you go oh my God that's amazing oh my God

and then they'll say because I always hated him as an actor he was always like this so there's always a sort of a dig and so people like to tear you apart I totally agree

don't ever read a review but if you know that's the one thing you've got to learn early on not everyone is going to love you there's going to be people who just don't like you for whatever reason

don't take it personally it's just the way of the world but that only comes with age that really does I mean you don't feel like that when you're the crazy industry yeah totally but if you read a good review

then you believe that then that means you believe the bad so don't believe the good and don't believe the bad just don't read them I love doing what I do and so I'm just I'm happy

do I have frustrations of course to do everybody does I'm a human being but I think it's important to see the good rather than you know I used to be a glass

half empty when I was very very young but something pulled me out of that and kept me going and now I sort of you know i'm like i've got so much to be grateful for so so grace god thank you so much thank you for having me