SCOTT Chambers’ star is in the ascendant. This year his performance in Joe Stephenson’s Chicken was praised by Sir Ian McKellen as “astonishing, intriguing, enchanting, moving”. A fan of horror films, he set his eyes on acting after seeing Wes Craven’s Scream and Patty Jenkins’s Monster, and presented Chicken in festivals around the world, from New Hampshire to South Korea.
Chambers starred in the new adaptation of Stephen Fry’s novel The Hippopotamus; it is scheduled for release later this year. 2017 will see the release of Olaf de Fleur’s horror film Hush, in which Scott also stars. He also writes and produces films.
Glass caught up with him recently, and when we weren’t moaning about London house prices or discussing underrated B-movies, we chatted about his acting history, his performance in Chicken and how drama school wasn’t for him …
Scott Chambers. Photograph: Justin van Vliet
Your character in Chicken is very set on having a family that loves him, and spends a lot of the film searching for the love and acceptance of people close to him. Was that a social commentary on families and communities in Britain being more broken than they once were? Or was it simply a character study?
Joe really wanted [social commentary] to be more of a thing. You know that person you might see in a shop – everyone has met someone like this – who’ll act a bit strange, and catch your eye, and then you see them and forget about them. Well – you shouldn’t forget about that person. They’re acting a certain way because of how they’ve been brought up, or certain things in their lives – maybe they’re not socially aware because they’re not around people much. A hundred percent, you’re meant to look at the film and go, “There are big issues in this world, and potentially, for some people, buying a new car isn’t one of them.”
Chicken is a hard watch – the first half feels like a comedy, the second half doesn’t. We’re trying to show the audience that you can laugh with Richard, have fun with him, but as soon as the layers start getting peeled back, it’s like, this is what you’ve been laughing [with]. Someone that doesn’t have anyone that cares about him, someone that’s abused.
People should be walking away from [the film] going, “There are people that live in caravans, that have no food, no money.” It really is a realistic take on what’s going on.
So how long have you been pursuing acting professionally?
Professionally, since I was about 18. I’ve been auditioning since I was 14.
No-one from my home [is involved in the acting] industry, and they were all like, “You won’t wanna do this. It’s a phase.” When I was 15 or 16, I found an extras website. And I was an extra on this TV series for a day. And I had my mum with me … that was one of the days where she really saw how much I wanted to do it. I said to her, “You keep whatever I earn today, it’s not about the money, I want to do this.” I really wanted to prove a point.
And when she saw me there, looking at the lead actors – I remember all day being like, “Oh my god, look how cool that looks, I wanna do that” – something actually changed in her. She started being very, very encouraging, and [started taking me] to classes. Every Saturday we’d drive or get the train to London, and in King’s Cross there was an acting-for-the-camera [course] for young adults, and I’d go there for two hours every Saturday morning. When she felt comfortable, I just started going on my own. I was 16 or 17. That was how I instantly started learning how to be natural. When you’re in there, you couldn’t be “big”, you couldn’t over-pronounce – it was film acting.
My first class was very, very intimidating – you’d be looking at yourself [on film] and everyone’s watching it with you, and going “What do you think is wrong with it?” But after a while, it was fine.
You have a national diploma in acting from Colchester Institute. How come you decided to not go down the drama school route?
I was 18 at the time – the age where you [apply] to drama schools. I’d left college, and just been cast in Chicken, the play. And I was at the Southwark Playhouse doing that. And while I was doing it, the other two actors – one had gone to RADA, one had gone to LAMDA – they just filled me with so [many] different ways of looking at acting. I’d started reading certain books, but I was still very young, and it was all just being introduced to me, really. And they introduced me to a lot of techniques I wasn’t aware of. So then I wanted to go to drama school; I became obsessed with it.
When I was performing Chicken on stage, I applied for RADA and LAMDA … LAMDA called me back on their foundation course, which was never going to happen – it was just too much money. For RADA’s main acting course, there were four rounds. I got to the final, and I remember they said how the next year[’s fees] would go up to 10 or 11 grand, and how at the [time] it was three-and-a-half grand. And as soon as they said that, my heart just sank.
I remember feeling I hadn’t done my best that day – a couple of things had put me off, I was nervous, and I just thought, “Oh my god. If I don’t get in now, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get in.” I don’t come from a background that’d be able to afford this kind of thing … and then I got home, and there was a rejection letter.
So as soon as that happened, I thought to myself: I have to do it on my own, really. I can’t go to drama school. It would have been incredible for me, but at the same time, had I gone, half [the stuff currently on my CV] I wouldn’t have done, ‘cos I’d have only graduated last year. So it ended up working for me somehow. I just worked super hard – I did a bunch of classes at the Acting Centre in Covent Garden, and had a bunch of one-on-ones with Mel Churcher, an acting coach I really look up to.
Basically, I did street promo and office temping, saved up money, and just went to these classes. And I was 18 then. When I [filmed] Chicken, I was 21. By that point, I’d read every book under the sun. One day I went to the National Theatre bookshop and had this massive list, and I asked the guy behind me, who was an actor, “If there are any that aren’t on this list that you can recommend, give them to me!” I spent about £150 in there, and binged them all in a week.
Scott Chambers. Photograph: Justin van Vliet
It’s a shame that drama schools are so prohibitively expensive.
When we’re talking about ten grand for a career where none of my friends are even earning that [in] a year, it feels very like [drama schools are] catering towards certain people now. I come from a completely normal school, and my parents wouldn’t be able to afford any of this. I could put them in debt … and I know they’d do it, because they’ve always supported me. But they’d be in debt. Ten grand for student fees alone …
What if acting didn’t work out? What then? If I ever [were to do] a degree, it’d be at a university, something that could lead elsewhere.
You’ve been garnering plenty of recognition recently, so I guess you haven’t needed drama school …
I hope it continues. This year is the first where I can finally not rely on office temping and that kind of stuff, but it’s not like I’m really relaxed … I have a friend, same age as me, [whose salary is] six times higher than [mine]!
What were some of the more useful things you learned at the Colchester Institute?
Colchester Institute – I can’t really big it up. When I was there I was told I wouldn’t become an actor, and they were telling me to look at other things.
I’d taken this big step forward – [taking] acting as my diploma there … I was the only one with an agent. I’d gone to London, had some really bad headshots done, handed them out to all these offices. And I got nowhere – I went to agents like United, the bigger ones. “Hey, I’m looking for representation!” I was 17, it was ridiculous. I did get an [agent at] a really bad agency, and when I was at the Institute I got all these auditions. And every single time I’d go up, they’d make me feel bad about it.
I remember the guy who taught business in acting … he told me and the person sat next to me – she was quite passionate – that we’d end up working at McDonald’s. He was one of those people that was just horrible, just trying to get a reaction. I remember once after class he made me stay behind to talk about drama school. He told me: “All these auditions you go up for are pointless.” And I was like, “They’re not, because I got called back for some of them.” He said, “Yes, but you don’t ever get them.” I was like, “Well, I might,” and he was like, “You’ve never been to drama school. Why would you, and not someone from drama school, get them?”
As soon as I left [the Institute and got to] London, I did NYT, and that was the very first time I felt like I was around people who actually wanted to act. At the Institute, I felt like people had done [acting] to bunk off classes. People were just there for fun, they didn’t really want to do it, and the teachers weren’t really helpful with their enthusiasm – there was none.
And at Actors’ Centre, they were all professional actors. It’s very intimidating as soon as you walk through the door, because your teacher’s probably a casting director or industry professionals. When I first joined, I’d done nothing. I don’t even know how I got in. They’d make you audition if you hadn’t got a CV. And everyone had done something, and they were all a bit older than me, and some of them had been to RADA. It was intimidating, it made me work harder. That was where I really learned.
You’ve cited Charlize Theron, Sean Penn and Wes Craven’s Scream as influences; these are all American. Do you feel an affinity with the American way of doing things? Would you like to go to Hollywood?
I think there’s just more opportunity there. All the British actors I look up to tend to end up there. So it isn’t that I want to move anywhere – and I truly don’t; I’ve been to LA when I was 12 or 13, and it wasn’t somewhere I wanted to go again – but it seems to be that everyone ends up going there. My friends who’ve gone out there are getting five auditions a week, whereas here it’s about one – if that.
So that’s it, really. It definitely isn’t [because they’re American per se]. I didn’t even [think about] it ‘til now! The only reason they’re my favourites is because more things get made out there – you get more chances to be diverse. I really love America, but I wouldn’t say I [actively] want to move there, it’s just that if I want [my acting career] to be long-lasting, it looks like I would have to.
by Arjun Sajip
All photographs: Justin van Vliet
Chicken is available on online film platform MUBI until August 10
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