Scott lands new role on TV
EBBW Vale actor Scott Rose-Marsh has continued to build on his budding acting career this month as he lands a role in the new BBC series The Outlaws.
The 33-year-old actor became known locally in Blaenau Gwent for gaining a part in the S4C drama Yr Amgueddfa last year, just months after walking out of his job in a call centre. He will be on our screens again this week in the new Stephen Merchant show.
Scott, who lives at home in Ebbw Vale with his children, says despite the challenges facing up-and-coming actors like himself over the course of the pandemic, he is as hungry as ever to improve his skills, and is still over the moon to be chasing his dreams.
“It does feel a bit surreal watching yourself back on these kind of shows to be honest, but it’s definitely a good feeling,” Scott said as he spoke from his home in Blaenau Gwent.
“I’ve been fortunate that I was able to land myself a number of roles over the course of the pandemic, with appearances in The Outlaws, an upcoming movie about the Kray twins, as well as a few others which I can’t talk about yet. It’s kept me going financially and allowed me to improve a lot, and I’m just constantly learning all the time.
“Obviously the long-term goal for me is to keep developing my skills as an actor, and eventually land myself a leading role in a production with someone like the BBC or Netflix, but I’m aware it’s a case of building myself up and as long as I get to be acting full-time then I’m happy.
“My part in The Outlaws is another smaller role, but it’s a recurring one as a gang enforcer throughout the series, so it means I will be appearing in a number of episodes, which is great. It was a very exciting project to work on, so I can’t wait for people to see it now.”
The Outlaws is a BBC series that follows seven strangers from different walks of life forced together to complete a Community Payback sentence in Bristol. The show is described as part crime thriller and part character study with humour and heart. It will feature Academy Award-winning actor Christopher Walken in his first lead British television role, alongside writer and director Stephen Merchant.
Former salesman Scott says that while he is more than happy to have swapped his old career for exciting roles such as this, behind the scenes there is still a lot of hard work that goes unseen.
“It’s definitely a tough industry to break into, with auditions and things like that, but for me I’m just continuing to follow my dreams and keep working as hard as possible,” he said.
“I was driving the other day when my agent gave me a call to do an audition on very short notice. It was a case of pulling over to park somewhere near Caerleon, propping up the camera on a bin, and filming myself there and then.
“A few hours later I got a call to say I’d got the part, which is crazy when I think of how often I spend hours on audition videos that never come to anything, but I guess that’s just the way it goes.
“Of course my family are very supportive of me in what I’m doing, and all this has just become normal to them now. Obviously I’m not a household name or anything like that yet, so for the most part nothing has changed in my life at home.
“One thing that is funny is that a lot of the roles I seem to be getting at the moment are as some kind of tough guy or gangster, and for those who know me in real life they know it couldn’t be further from the kind of person that I am.
“I guess it’s just my face, as people do seem to think I look a bit menacing, which is why I’m getting cast as a bad guy quite a lot. It does make us laugh but I promise I’m a really nice guy in reality.
“Overall though, I have to say I’m very pleased with how things are going for me on this journey at the moment, and even though there’s still a long way to go, I’ve still got that passion to keep going to auditions and I really do love it.
“Hopefully this is just the start of bigger and better things to come for me, and I can do it for many years to come.”