Dougray Scott has revealed he was tormented by a “sadistic” school headmaster and told he would never make it as an actor.
The movie star said the head teacher disliked him so much he tried to have him expelled multiple times.
Scott, who grew up in Glenrothes, Fife, said the man even sent a letter to his mum saying he was disruptive and would never amount to anything.
The Mission Impossible 2 star fell in love with acting after taking part in a school play when he was 14.
However Scott, 55, who has also appeared in Hitman and Enigma, said teachers told him he would never make it as an actor because of his working class background.
He said: “I didn’t like school or get on with a lot of the teachers. The headmaster at my secondary school hated me. I still don’t understand to this day why.
“He is dead now and I have to say I wasn’t sad when I found that out. He was a sadistic guy.
“I did a few bad things. I stole his cloak once and some stuff went on.
“He tried to expel me five times. He accused me of being in fights with the other schools all the time. I was like, ‘I wasn’t there, it wasn’t me.’ But he was like, ‘It was you – you’re expelled, boy.’
“He sent a letter to my mum telling her that I was a useless piece of so and so, that I wouldn’t do anything with my life and I was disruptive.”
Speaking on the Family Business podcast with Tamer Hassan, he added: “Then I did a play at school when I was 14 and I sort of fell in love with acting.
“But where I was brought up nobody really knew much about acting and teachers were like, ‘You can’t be an actor.’
“There were a lot of barriers and people said, ‘You can’t do that because of where you come from.’ But I thought, ‘Well, everyone comes from somewhere so why not?’
“So I decided, ‘Well, I think I am going to be an actor.’
“I applied to drama college and got accepted.”
