On Thursday evening, we welcomed Sunshine on Leith and Pride star George MacKay to the Festival for a wide-ranging and utterly charming The Young and the Wild In Person event with journalist Siobhan Synnot, covering everything from pro surfing to #MeToo. Here are a few highlights...
On Starting Out in Acting
"I was always into drama - I put on a production of Peter and the Wolf when I was really young - purely so I could turn my Batman costume inside out and play a Wolf! My first role was when I was ten - a casting agent came to my School, and three lost boys in Peter Pan were from my school. We filmed for 8 months in Australia - there was a full size pirate ship, it was mind boggling. When I came home I thought, 'Wow! I want to do that...'"
On Sunshine on Leith
"Peter Mullen's voice, in general, is the greatest voice ever. He sounds like Tom Waits. He sounds terrifying, whatever he's saying, but he's so warm. Like the rest of us, maybe singing wasn't his thing, but he made it work so well - he talked himself in to those songs, built up to it.
Let's Get Married, in the pub, was my favourite scene. Mike Keats of the Cuban Brothers played the barman. It was one of the first scenes we did, and we were a ittle wary, waiting to stand up and get into it - Mike just jumped up and launched into the song, and we all looked at each other and said 'we're in a musical!'"
On The Secret of Marrowbone
"Because of the economics of filmmaking - and also the econmics of experience, of going to see something you're sure you'll ike - it's very rare to see someone do something beautiful, complex and strange - and that's what Sergio's [Sánchez, director] done. Please do go and see it. And if you've seen it already, it's a film that's made to be watched at least twice!"
On For Those in Peril
"Working with Paul Wright was thrilling - as a director he's so clear but also so open. I remember one scene, where my character Aaron has develeoped a really close relationship with Jane, and he's coming on quite intensely - he just gave me a note 'do whatever you want but scare her within the scene.' You know exacy what he wants of you, but there are so many ways in which you can do it - the possibilities are endless.
There was a fair element of fluke about my accent - I got the rhythms of the Socttish accent pretty well, but I was lucky it was that specific - I wouldn't have known I was doing Montrose! I was just aiming at Scottish... I did Sunshine on Leith a week after - I was in a good place with the accent!"
On #MeToo
"Now is the time to be vocal, and to support people who are speaking out. It's important that we recalibrate what's worth speaking about to, not only sexaul assault in the most obvious, but also sexism on set, in the workplace. It's important we all stand by each other, and that none of us are afriad to speak out when we things that are wrong."
On His Dream Job...
"Genuinely, if I could have any skill - I'd be a pro surfer! I mean, it just seems ideal - you go the most beautiful places in the world and surf.
More seriously, I was no good with science in school - I recently did some filming for a BBC special about the 70th anniversary of the NHS, and, without being too beauty queen about it, there are jobs that you often take for granted - and you want to be a musician or surfer because you see them all the time. Hopefully. you don't see the doctors too much! If I'd had more of an awareness of that, maybe I would have paid more attention to science in school!"