SCOTTISH FILM SPECIAL
The players
a? . After the rollercoaster ride of Braveheart and Trainspotting, ’ N the future of Scottish film rests with a generation of actors and I filmmakers determined to put the nation on the map. Over the ’ ' next four pages, we profile some of the hottest names in the business.
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Kelly MacDonald
BIG BREAK Diane in Trainspotting (1996). PAST Born and bred in Glasgow; auditioned for Trainspotting after spotting a flyer while working behind a bar. Television debut in controversial ’satanic abuse’ drama Flowers Of The Forest; stage debut at the Old Vic in London in Hurlybur/y. Also modelling work and an appearance in the Baby Chaos video for ’Hello'. FUTURE Getting a favourable buzz (’powerhouse performance’ says Variety) for her first lead role as a teenage prostitute in Ste/la Does Tricks; popping off to France for location work with Bob Hoskins and Jessica Lange on a movie version of Balzac’s Cousin Bette; currently shooting World Of Moss in Scotland with ' -
Chariots Of Fire director Hugh Hudson. » Robert Carlyle
Raindog Theatre Company of which he is co-
in Carla’s Song.
BIG BREAK Stevie m Ken Loach’s Riff Raff(l99l).
PAST After training at Glasgow’s RSAMD, he made a name for himself on stage, particularly with
founder. Became known for hard-edged roles on television (dreadlocked psycho Nosty in Safe, shaven- headed Hillsborough survivor Albie in Cracker) and film (building site worker Stevie in Riff Raff, lethal wee hard man Begbie in Trainspotting). Showed his softer edge as Linus Roache’s gay lover in Priest, as TV's Highland c0p Hamish Macbeth and as bus driver George discovering the horrors of war in Nicaragua
FUTURE Fast talking in a Cockney accent alongside Damon Albarn and Ray Winston in Antonia Bird's
London heist movie Face; stripping off as part of a
male dance troupe made up of unemployed Sheffield Steelworkers in The Full Monty.
John Hannah
BIG BREAK Matthew in Four Weddings AndA Funeral (1994).
PAST Apprentice electrician in East Kilbride before studying at RSAMD alongSIde Robert Carlyle. Steady television work in Scottish thriller Brond, police serial Out Of The Blue, as a forensic pathologist in McCal/um, and in power game drama Truth Or Dare with Helen Baxendale. Sent W.H. Auden onto the bestseller lists after reading poetry during the funeral scene in Four Weddings AndA Funeral and continued in a gay role in Madagascar Skin. Played tabIOId reporter in low-budget British feature The Innocent Sleep.
FUTURE Crooning karaoke and failing to live up to his parental responSIbilities as the head of a family of shoplifters in The James Gang; co-starring with Stuart Townsend in Resurrection Man, the tale of a journalist on the trail of a murderer; currently shooting contemporary love story Sliding Doors in London with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeanne Tripplehorn.
8 THE List 30 May—12 Jun 1997