BADGE
AGAINST THE MAGHINE
Scraping away the heroin chic sheen that made Trainspotting a hit,
promises to be 100% pure Irvine Welsh. The List goes head to head with actors from each of the three stories that make up the film. Words: Peter Ross
Super fly FOR THE SCHOOL-AGE SCOTTISH MALE, getting picked last at football is the one sure-fire sign of social leprosy. You're persona non grata with the adolescent 'in’ crowd; you've been black-balled by the smart set who stink of fly fags and know how to spit with style.
Still, being totally devoid of on-pitch savvy hasn't hurt the acting career of Stephen McCole. As Boab Coyle in 'The Granton Star Cause’ — the first part of Paul McGuigan’s Acid House film - he's a footballing fiasco; as Mojo in My Name Is Joe his whole team stinks; as Wullie MacBoyne in Channel 4’s Young Person’s Guide To Becoming A Rock Star he supports Rangers. Three own goals and he‘s in the acting biz like a vintage Dalglish strike.
’Sometimes being bad at things can work for you, y'know?’ says McCole. applying the magic sponge to a hangover in Glasgow’s CCA with a chain of tabs and a crate of lager. ‘But it's strange that I've got to play a football player twice and both times they were fat and useless. it's also weird that in everything I do I
have a can of Tennents. Regal Kingsize, Tennents Lager and football are the three things that follow me into jobs.’ .
Footballing ineptitude provides the catalyst to much personal misfortune for Boab Coyle in 'The Granton Star Cause'. In short succession he gets the boot from his pub team, kicked out of his house, returned to the sub‘s bench by his girlfriend, brought down hard by the police
20 THE U81 17 Dec 1998-7 Jan 1999