Scoot McNairy

Dimitri: How was your photoshoot with Mike Ruiz?

Scoot: Man, he was awesome. We had a lot of fun. Man, he was quick and just really fun and to the point, man. I had a really great time shooting with him. He shoots maybe 10 pictures or something. He’s like, “All right, next outfit.” I was like, “Wow, man, this guy’s really got it dialed in.”

Dimitri: Congratulations on the new film, Luckiest Girl Alive.

Scoot: Thank you.

Dimitri: It’s a fascinating film. Can you tell us about your character Andrew Larson? How did you come about getting into this film?

Scoot: Well, I think Mike Barker, the filmmaker, reached out to me to ask me about my interest. I looked through the book and I felt like it was an incredibly intense subject matter that I was interested in or more of exploring. I felt like he was more of a pariah. I felt like he was definitely a pariah in the book, but in the script, it felt like he was less of one. Once you get in there and start working on the flick, the weight of all the stuff that’s in it really starts to really hit you once you’re there. That was a bit of a surprise to me in the shooting of it, of the film that Mr. Larson’s character seemed more of a– It was just different. It was not a tough shoot. Look, working with the cast and everybody, we had a great time shooting the film, and it was a lovely project to work on. The subject matter, even doing it and also leaving and finishing the film is something that stuck with me in a way that felt out of my comfort zone.

Dimitri: Absolutely. With Jessica, being her debut novel and she insisted to actually rewrite it and do into a screenplay herself. Was she actually present during the filming?

Scoot: Jessica was very involved throughout the entire process. She was there at set just about every single day. I met with her not too much before the project but she’s very specific about certain things in the project. I know that the character from Larson was a little bit different than it was in the book. Again, that was her adaptation.

Dimitri: Mike Barker directing it, he’s amazing.

Scoot: He is.

Dimitri: I love his work on The Handmaid’s Tales, by far, my favorite of what he’s done besides this film, of course. The guy is a genius.

Scoot: On top of the fact that Mike Barker is incredibly talented and wonderful to work with, he’s also one of the funniest guys in the world just to be around. He’s very funny, very jolly, very sarcastic. He makes very dark projects, but he’s a very jolly guy. You wouldn’t peg him for having such a dark mind.

Dimitri: That’s interesting. That’s really, really interesting.

Scoot: Yes, very funny, always cracking jokes a lot of the time. He was so a real joy to be around and to work with. I think when you’re tackling certain difficult subject matters, there’s a certain lightness that you also need to bring to the set to step away from those moments at times.
When there’s that underlying idea or thoughts on the subject matter, it is nice to break people at work from that. Otherwise, you end up having a set that’s just really, really quiet all the time, and it’s just quiet, and there’s just no one saying anything. That’s just not always the best environment to work in. You have to remember that we do these jobs because they’re fun, so you do want to try and remember that at times and have fun with it.

Dimitri: You had a fantastic cast, and especially, of course, Mila Kunis, she’s amazing.

Scoot: Mila was an absolute joy to work with and so fun. She’s so talented. She’s so sweet and kind and incredibly approachable. She was just wonderful in the film but even more, so just really, really, really amazing to work across from.

Dimitri: Given the difficult subject matters that confronted the filmmakers in adapting Luckiest Girl Alive to the screen, the producers reached out to several organizations to assist in the process of portraying the delicate and graphic scenes. They reached out to RAINN and The Sandy Hook Promise Foundation to get their eyes on the script for feedback as well as to discuss how to talk about these issues on set during production. Do you feel filmmakers managed to get the message across as accurately as possible?

Scoot: In regards to that messaging what did it accomplish? That would be more so. I’m a part of it, so I’m close to it. I think that that would be a better answer for a viewer that is going into this, not knowing what the film is about to feel that message was portrayed in an appropriate way or if the message was conveyed. Did everyone universally understand it?
It was surprising for me to cover two extremely intense subject matters and integrate them into the exact same film. I thought it was interesting, and bold at the same time. It’s a tough needle to thread in regard to tackling these subjects.

Dimitri: Do you have other projects as well coming up? What else are you working on right now?

Scoot: Right now I’m shooting a film with Marielle Heller, and it’s me and Amy Adams another book that was written called Nightbitch. Marielle Heller did the adaptation of the book, and we’re in the present shooting with that right now, it’s really good. I think it’s a really special, interesting film. It’s got Marielle’s fingerprints all over it, but I’m really excited about that one.

Dimitri: Is it going to be on the platform as well, or is it a theatrical release?

Scoot: It’s Fox Searchlight, I think so, and you just never know. My partner, she was in a film called Smile that didn’t have a theatrical release, but the film turned out so well that you turned around and it did. It’s doing amazing in the box office and whatnot, I feel like they do line them up for streaming, but sometimes a Batman or something. They line it up for theatrical and then it turns to streaming. I don’t really put too much thought in those things. Honestly, I’m just more excited about working and having a job and being able to be employed. That where it goes is where it goes. It’s out of your control.

Dimitri: When it comes to the platforms, do you think it really helped to get some of the projects across the line than before when films were purely relying on the theatrical and it was such a big gamble in terms of some smaller projects or not smaller, but stories that probably would just not stick to the thousand screens over the X amount of weekends. Do you feel that Netflix and everyone else really made a big impact on the industry?

Scoot: It’s a great question. It’s hard for me to dissect all that, but I think we all consume content now in so many different ways. Your TV, the movie theater, and the phone, but I think it’s always been hard and it still is hard, and it always will be hard to get a movie made. I don’t think that even with all this content and so many different streamers, there’s more content being made, but that’s also a recipe for having to sift through more content to find the good stuff. I feel theatrical release or streaming or whatever it is, if it’s good, the cream rises to the top and if it’s good, it’s good. If it’s not, then it fades into the bundle package of projects. Again, I’m not on that side of the business, so I don’t know. I feel like I don’t pay as much attention to the unsuccess or success of a project, I’m just so grateful to be a part of it that where it goes, I’m like, “Wherever it goes, it goes.”

Dimitri: I understand that you have a production company as well now, and you’re delving yourself into directing, is that something that you see yourself in the future?

Scoot: Oh, absolutely. I wish I could have seen myself in the past, directing is something I’ve been wanting to do way before I think I started acting.

Dimitri: Really, okay.

Scoot: I think over the years of acting or being in front of a camera you realize over time that the creativity within the performance has its boundaries and its parameters. I felt like as a filmmaker or director, those boundaries they’re still there. They’re just widened so much that creatively as a person, I definitely want to go move to another step or start knocking on that door and I have been. It’s just a matter of finding the right project that is something that I’m really passionate about and also that I can visualize immediately from reading it. We’ve found some things, but as you know every little thing has its hiccups and stuff, and so it’s more about just navigating through that to get the right project with all the right team around it and whatnot, and then swing for the fences and hope it goes well. It’s a miracle that a movie ever even gets made, and it’s a phenomenon that the movie gets made and it’s good.

Dimitri: You had an amazing run being attached to work with some of the best directors and amazing projects like the Argo, 12 Years a Slave. I think it’s time for you to step up and be a director. You’ve learned from the best in the business. I think it’s–

Scoot: There a certain sense that was a lot to– look, I’m really lucky and grateful and don’t take for granted the opportunities that I’ve had to be able to work with great filmmakers, but also filmmakers that I really admire and follow, but there’s a part of that too, subconsciously that you do want to get on set with them and see what their tricks are and see how they make their films and how they talk to the actors and what their process is. David Fincher, I had a small film part in Gone Girl, but I was just really desperate to just be on set with him to see what he was doing, and that goes for all the filmmakers that I’ve worked with is, I tend to stick around the set and watch a lot just to gain knowledge for one day when I am the puppet master.

Dimitri: You had a cameo in another Netflix production out just recently, Blonde by Andrew Dominik, starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe. Can you tell us about it?
Scoot: First I thought, Ana did an incredible job at playing Marilyn and taking that on, and you can tell that she worked really, really, really hard at it, and it shows up. Andrew Dominik has always been a filmmaker that undeniably is a true filmmaker, the maker part. His films are an interpretation of some things about the filmmaker. It’s really interesting, and I’ll say this, my feelings were about the film after I did see it was that the cinematography in the filmmaking was hands down, one of the most beautiful films cinematically I had ever seen. Just transcendent. It felt like we were in and out of a dream, but there was something that Andrew verbally said before the premier of the film, and that is, “This is a story. It’s not necessarily a true story, but it’s a story. We tell stories to each other all the time, no different than the story that I’m telling you right now.”
Knowing Andrew and seeing the film and knowing that this is a story that Andrew’s just telling, you really have to know Andrew to understand more of what that film is. My people ask me, “What do you think about the movie?” I was like, “I don’t know. I need a couple of weeks to sit with it to see how I feel about it.” I think that’s what some filmmakers do best is create conversation, create an opinion. I think Andrew’s done that exquisite, there’s so many opinions and questions about this, and they’re on both sides, but I still think that as a film, that we will look back at this film in 20 years and say, “Wow.” The subject matter was tough and potentially the direction or whatever is people have different opinions about, but we can’t deny that this is a really amazing piece of filmmaking. It really is, and it’s new and it’s beautiful, and it undeniably takes you on an emotional journey. I think people have many different ways that they feel about it.
I think that’s why we go see a filmmaker film the female And male. We do really want to see their take on that story. I know for me personally, I chase filmmakers. As far as watching content is that I want to know a little bit about the filmmaker if it’s a new one before I watch their film because you want to know what their opinions are so that you can come into that film or that story with a little bit more of an open mind. Versus– and I’m not particularly talking about an individual film, I’m talking about more as a whole, that when you know someone’s who they really are a filmmaker of who they are, what their opinions are, their beliefs are, then you just come at watching their film or their perspective in sometimes a different way. Sometimes it’s positive and sometimes it’s negative.

Dimitri: Absolutely.

Scoot: I think in regards to Blonde, I feel knowing Andrew, is it knowing him and what kind of person that he is, might lead you to have to answer some questions about your opinions. Not that they’re going to be right or wrong, but answer them.
There is a lot of debate or, again, opinions that for anyone involved in that project, I imagine even on Ana, it’s tough to do interviews within this controversy or debate more so because of the society in which we’re living in right now. I feel like people tend to walk on eggshells about certain subjects based on fear. That’s a really awful place for society to be at. We should be able to talk about these things without feeling like we’re going to get hurt or punished or canceled. I think that if we could have an open conversation about it, then we could get more clear on everybody’s viewpoints. Again, not to say that anyone’s are right or wrong, but communication is the number one issue in a debate or an argument. When we’re not communicating with each other, then it feels really difficult to have an opinion.
Again, I’m talking to you as a viewer not as an actor because I’m not really in the film and I only did a day or two days on it, so I wasn’t there for the process. I really feel more so like a movie theater viewer than I do a part of that film. I think I’m probably talking to you in a way that I’m not trying to defend it.
I’m talking to you as an opinion that I necessarily had or didn’t have in regards to the film, not as a person who’s a bigger part of this project that feels like there’s a weight coming down on them or they’re fearful.

Dimitri: Did you do any filming during COVID?

Scoot: We were in my second shooting season of Narcos at the time. We were probably one or two episodes in when COVID hit. Most of COVID I worked on Narcos that season, and it was scattered. We’d go for four weeks and then shut down for two months, and then we’d go for six weeks and shut down. It was mostly a back-and-forth with that. Then I think The Luckiest Girl Alive was the film that I was doing right around the time of the pandemic was ending and they were lifting quarantines in Canada and some of their– I buckled down during the pandemic and just spent time with my partner, and my kids, and my family. We just muscled through it like the rest of the world and trying to figure it out, and trying to stay positive and trying to do what’s best for our kids.
It’s been a lot of trauma that people have gone through over the last few years. Most of all, it’s the kids that I worry about. I just worry about the hiccups that it’s put in those kids developmental processes of their life. We just won’t know those repercussions until way down the line. That’s what my heart and concern go out to. All the kids all around the world.

Dimitri: How do you keep yourself mentally grounded?

Scoot: Me and my partner, we surf and then I have a motorcycle that I go ride quite a bit. That’s my release. She has a horse that she goes and rides quite a bit, and that’s her release. Between motorcycles, riding some horses, and surfing the rest of is just taking care of the kids and working.

Dimitri: Wow. That’s impressive. Where do you go surfing?

Scoot: I’m usually surfing Zeros or Heavens or Malibu or Topanga or Sunset, County Lion. That whole little strip there’s my go-to. Head to Sunset, check out the waves and just keep heading north until you find something good.

Dimitri: That’s awesome. Do you live far from the beach?

Scoot: I’d be at the beach in 20 minutes.

Dimitri: So you enjoy riding motorcycles.

Scoot: Yes. You know that slogan been going on for 100 years freedom. Just free. I realized that riding the motorcycle is just freedom from emotions, and that defines what joy means. What is joy? Is it a feeling? It’s like I feel joy on the motorbike, but I’m not feeling anything that led me to the belief that joy is actually the freedom from all of your emotions. It’s feeling nothing.

Dimitri: That’s interesting. What sort of bike do you ride?

Scoot: A Ducati 1100 EVO.

Dimitri: Any projects that came your way so you can bring your bike along?

Scoot: I bought a motorbike when I was doing Narcos down in Mexico. On the weekends, we would go adventure bike riding with all these guys. Man, it was one of the greatest times. It was just so incredible, taking the bikes up to these volcanoes and through these rivers and stuff. I just fell in love with adventure bike riding and came home from the job and built out a bike. Italy, all of these places I want to go ride. All of those places.

Dimitri: Have you ever taken bikes on a track?

Scoot: There’s a racing school that does its Circuit of the Americas at Austin, Texas. It does it in Indiana, and all over, and we’ll go out there. There’s some other actors that go and do it as well. We’ll go out there to these racing schools, and by the third day, they let you get out there and race each other. That’s about the extent of my racing at this juncture. Sprint cars. Those sprint cars that go on play track. I’m getting into that right now. I’ve been tinkering around the sprint car races up in Ventura. I’m looking to eventually, here I need to get rid of the motorbikes and get into a car. I’m getting older and my reaction times are a little slower.

Dimitri: That’s interesting because yesterday I had a catch-up with my friend who was actually the only Frenchman in the NASCAR, Michel Disdier. He’s starting to train me for the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

Scoot: Dude, that’s awesome, man. You got to keep me posted on it. The great thing, you know Michael Fassbender.

Dimitri: Yeah.

Scoot: Fassbender entered the Ferrari Cup and won first place in his first year.

Dimitri: No way. Are you serious?

Scoot: Yes, the guy’s an incredible actor, but he’s even a better racer.

Dimitri: What? That’s nuts.

Scoot: Yes, man. I saw that news on him and I was just so delighted. I was like, “No way, man, you did it. You did it. That’s awesome. That’s insane.”

Scoot: Do you follow Moto GP?

Dimitri: I do follow, and F1 as well actually ever since I was a kid.

Scoot: Got it. I followed NASCAR as a kid, but Moto GP, I follow religiously. I grew up, my uncle was raced on flat track [crosstalk] Harley Davidson when we were kids. We had this ranch up in Paris, Texas, and he filled the barn full of bikes, little 50s, 80s, 75, an XR75, a 125 two 250s, and a 500N. We would go since we were little bitty kids, probably six, seven, eight and go on these rides. Since then, man, I just– My whole life, that’s all I wanted to do, is ride my bicycle or my mountain bike or my motorcycle.

Dimitri: If you could give your younger self an advice, what sort of advice would you give yourself?

Scoot: That’s a great question. Give myself advice. I would say, be patient That’s it.