Killian Scott: From Love/Hate to hot new Netflix drama Kaos
Killian Scott in Kaos on Netflix.
At the height of Ireland’s fixation with crime series Love/Hate, Killian Scott had a realisation how big the show had become. He was travelling around South America and on walking into a hostel in a remote area, was spotted by fans.
“I’m in Columbia, and I walk into the hostel, and I’m signing in at the front desk. I just hear out of nowhere: ‘Hey, Tommy. Hey, Tommy. How’s that fizzy orange working out for you?’” laughs Scott, referring to his character’s quirky drink request while under arrest in one of the show’s most-memorable scenes.
Ten years after it ended - having become one of Ireland’s biggest cultural phenomenons - Love/Hate remains a series that people engage with, says the actor.
“Someone told me yesterday that supposedly it’s been picking up a lot of steam on ITVX, that it’s kind of having another moment. We shouldn’t be greedy - I think a couple of people maybe noticed it the first time around.”
Now Scott is about to star in the type of show that could again become a conversation starter. He plays a leading role in KAOS, a darkly comic and contemporary take on Greek mythology from screenwriter and showrunner Charlie Covell (The End Of The F***ing World).
KAOS centres around Zeus who, having long enjoyed his status as king of the gods, has never felt truly threatened. That is, until he wakes up one morning and discovers a wrinkle on his forehead, sparking a potential midlife crisis. Who better to play Zeus than king of the offbeat, Jeff Goldblum?
Scott, for his part, gets to embrace his inner rock God as Orpheus, a famous rock star who is married to Riddy, aka Eurydice (Aurora Perrineau). On the face of it, they lead perfect lives.
The Irish actor jumped at the opportunity to star in the show, adding that he went on to realise how widely known the characters involved are. “It’s very rare that you get something that is this original, or that feels like a different kind of voice,” he says.
“Zeus and the Minotaur, Daedalus, all these characters are so well known. And yet, Charlie managed to do this really unique thing where they brought them to life in a very unique world that’s got a little bit of a taste of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet, I thought,” adds Scott.
“I was familiar with The End of the F***ing world, which I thought was great. Charlie has this very unique mix of humour and drama - meaningful moments, killer soundtrack. There are a lot of elements that Charlie is really strong with. To then place them in a world-building show, in the sense that you’re asking the audience to buy into this other version of reality, which has a fantastical element. Charlie has rooted the whole thing in a reality that I found easy to be swept away by and be captured by.
“Luckily, Aurora was just the best scene partner,” says Scott of his on-screen wife. “We had such a natural dynamic together. We also work in a very similar way, where we didn’t chat about things very much. I like to try and go to set with an open, flexible mind. You’re playing moments and notes and energy, as opposed to a pre-analytical experience, where you’re then delivering decisions you’ve already made. I just don’t find that very interesting.”
Younger Killian Scott, as a teenager with ambitions to act and be a musician, would have been very chuffed to combine both loves in playing a successful rock star, says Scott.
“I was a very substandard drummer in a band with my best friends and about 10 years ago, I really got into guitar. The drums are such an incredible instrument, but I just simply wasn’t that good.
“Guitar is just a little bit more practical, and I really got into that. Over the years, there’s been this budding music project that I’ve been chipping away at in the background,” he says of his love of music.
“Work comes along, and I go off and I film something, and then I come back and I go into what I refer to as the cave, which is a music room where I’ve been, like I said, chipping away.” That musical interest does not mean that he wasn’t a little spooked at playing the role of a rock star in KAOS. One big scene in the very first episode of the series sees his character perform live at a large open-air concert.
“There are always moments in scripts that you’re like: ‘I’m f***ing scared of that thing. That’s the scene I’m scared of’. You’re shooting all these other scenes, but there is this lingering thing in the background: eventually we’re going to get to this. It’s going to be a big deal.
“There’s a stage that they’d set up in a very historic location in Seville, in front of the Plaza de Espana. You’ve got 1000 background artists. Dan Smith of Bastille wrote the song. And I’m like: ‘Okay, don’t set the bar too high here! They put me in touch with this wonderful vocal coach, Anne-Marie Speed, who was the game changer - I simply would not have been able to deliver that if I hadn’t had her help.”
As well as playing a leading vocalist, Scott learned to play a song on the piano so that he could look convincing in another big, emotional scene. He opted for Nick Cave’s Into Your Arms. “It’s a beautiful, simple kind of piano piece. It’s a stunning piece of music. I’m not a pianist - I can’t play the piano, but we didn’t want to just do fake, pretend stuff.”
Scott had another ‘pinch me’ moment when he got to record some vocals for the series in the iconic Abbey Road Studios. “You have these moments, you know?” he says of his career. “I have such a strong connection to the 18-year-old guy who wanted to be an actor and was in Dramsoc at UCD, and was just euphoric when you get cast in the play that maybe 30 people are going to end up seeing. I’ve had a bunch of moments along the road that do strike me: ‘I can’t believe I’m getting to do these things’, and the Abbey Road thing was one of them.”
As a young actor, he had a very strong sense of other Irish actors - including Colin Farrell and his namesake, Cillian Murphy, breaking out. (With his own name the same as the Cork star, the young Murphy changed his name to Killian Scott).
“There was this very exciting moment, a sense of Irish actors really making a break into new territory. And I think, of late, it does feel like that territory has been expanding,” he says of Ireland’s growing reputation for talent in film and TV.
“You do get the strong sense of a country that’s really delivering above its weight. It’s very exciting - what we need now is another Intermission where loads of them are brought together.”
- KAOS is on Netflix now
