Martin Compston has opened up on the time he fumbled his Star Trek audition.
The Our House star, 38, was talking on his brand new podcast, Restless Natives, with pal, former Radio X presenter Gordon Smart.
The Scots actor recalled how he was suffering from from jetlag after just landing in the US, and was told he had the audition the next day. Martin, who is best known for his role as Steve Arnott in the hit BBC cop drama Line of Duty, struggled to remember his lines.
Discussing his failed audition, Martin said: "The way they do auditions in the US is you get a phone call saying can you be at the studio in an hour. The way we do things over here is quite different. You get a time, you go in, you've had the pages a day or two so you get a chance to learn it and there's a bit of chat.
"Over there it is very cold because they see so many people it's just like in, stand on that dot and out the door. So I said give me a day or two to get over the jetlag. I got off the plane and I've got an email saying I’ve got an audition. I get off the plane at like eight, nine at night and I’ve got an audition tomorrow for Star Trek. I said, I'm chuffed but I'm a mess, there's no way I'm going to be in a state for this."
Gordon asked: "This was for Scotty wasn’t it? We’re talking 10 years ago, the first one?" As Martin continued: "They said to me it's only three pages, it'll be fine, you can learn that no bother. It was a three-page monologue about quantum mechanics or something.
"In LA you've got Olympic, Sunset Boulevard, or whatever - they all run east to west so there's a number one Olympic east and a number one Olympic west…nobody told me that. So I got in the car and went to what I thought was the right address, which was in Koreatown and chapped this door, which looked like a massage parlour. I was like, “is this Star Trek?” She was like “no, no, massage massage” and I’m going “no, Star Trek”.
"And she was going “no, no, no massage massage.” And I was like, wait, is this like a test? Is somebody watching me? So you start getting paranoid. I phoned my agents and I was like, look, I’m a bit confused. I'm here for Star Trek, but it's a Korean massage parlour?"
He continued: "Two and a half hours I’m in the car [to the right address], which I used to rent from a place called Rent a Wreck - no air conditioning, sweating my balls off, jet lagged. I walk in, a few people in front of me get called and then a couple of people behind me get called. I'm like, alright, maybe they're annoyed I came late. I fell asleep, woke up and I was there myself and they were locking up.
"I could see the casting director and I was like, “Sorry, I'm here for a Star Trek audition.” She's like “are you Martin? Why didn't you sign in?” You've got to come in and sign a book and that's how they know you're there. Nobody told me. I fell asleep and woke up and then I've got this casting director, she's fuming. I'm a mess and I try to do the speech off book.
"Page and a half in, I’ve blanked. She went “look, I get what you're trying to do but just read the lines for me.” That got my back up but I blanked again. Then the third time she went “just read the lines.” I tried to do it again without reading them, forgot them again and just burst out laughing and then literally just read it.
"I remember coming home and my agents going “how was it? And I was like “lads, we’re not in great shape here.”
Restless Natives was inspired by Compston's work at the Ardgowan Hospice in his hometown of Greenock.
Episode 3 of Restless Natives: The Podcast is out today - listen here.
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