Waypoints: My Scottish Journey by Sam Heughan

Author:Sam Heughan [HEUGHAN, SAM]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2022-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

DAY FOUR

THE HARD ROAD

Holding down cash-in-hand jobs in London, while hoping a casting director might look favourably upon me, I slipped into dire straits. I was in no doubt that I wanted to be an actor. I just found myself dependent on other people, as well as an element of luck, to make it a success.

It meant when an offer came my way, from promotions to commercials and low-key parts, I would take it without much question. I needed the money, as well as the experience. I wasn’t in a position to choose from multiple offers. That kind of thing just didn’t happen to me. So, in 2005 when I landed a role in a Scottish soap opera called River City, I saw it as a chance to earn a regular income for a while doing something that I loved. I would miss my good friends, but it was just something I had to do. It also meant moving back to Glasgow once again, and the start of my itinerant existence living out of a suitcase.

In River City, I played a football ace called Andrew Murray. I’ll be frank here: I am terrible with a ball. I was the kind of kid at school who’d be picked last for a team, and suddenly there I was playing the role of the Scottish Premier League’s golden boy. I saw it as a challenge I was willing to embrace, and it proved to be the first of many in my bid to become an established actor.

Filming on the set of a soap opera is very different from being on stage. I still felt new to television. Without an audience, I had a lot to learn about where to direct my performance. In a content-hungry show like River City, with a fast production turnover, we would shoot more than 20 pages a day, from 4 different episodes. What’s more, rather than stopping to reposition the camera, each scene would be filmed consecutively from several angles. From an acting perspective, with cameras in front of me and over my shoulder, it gave me a lot to consider. The part of my brain that didn’t submit to the moment had to work overtime. It was tough and demanding, and a steep learning curve. I enjoyed the ride. Financially, the wolves retreated from my door. It wasn’t huge riches, but it meant I could pay the rent and put food on my table, and that felt priceless in terms of peace of mind.

After a year, despite the regular income from River City, and the opportunity to continue, I decided that it was time to move on. I needed to get back to my roots, seek inspiration elsewhere and play new, challenging characters. I found myself following the work, and landed the role of Dickie Greenleaf in a daring production of The Talented Mr Ripley directed by Raz Shaw. I loved the creativity and physicality of the play, which we performed in Northampton. I also took on

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