scotland's hottest export has our temperatures soaring

by Laura Prudom

He may not have a "McDreamy" nickname or the most coveted hair in primetime, but Grey's Anatomy's Kevin McKidd still sets our pulses racing every Thursday night with little more than his smouldering blue stare. As troubled Iraq war veteran Dr. Owen Hunt, Scottish-born McKidd has run the gamut of emotional storylines since joining the Emmy award-winning drama last season. From his grippingly realistic portrayal of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to the treacherous waters of a Seattle Grace love triangle, McKidd always manages to balance the poignancy of a man living with debilitating mental illness with the machismo of a battle-hardened trauma surgeon, even through Anatomy's sometimes soapy tendencies.

Throughout our conversation, McKidd is genial and down-to-earth - his natural Scottish brogue almost startling, considering the practiced ease of his American accent on the ABC drama. Now a permanent resident of Los Angeles with his wife and two children (Joseph, 9 and Iona, 7), McKidd admits that he's grown attached to many aspects of the city, despite its reputation, "There's that perception that Los Angeles has a falseness to it, but I think you only attract that if you've got that going on in yourself," he observes thoughtfully, "I've met some lovely people; some of the nicest people in the world here. And I love the Valley; I think more people go down there than they let on."

He speaks with the self-effacing air of a man who didn't have much growing up; his father was a plumber while his mother worked as a secretary at a lemonade factory, and McKidd describes himself as "a painfully shy kid" who took up acting at school as a way to overcome his timidity. He got his start in school productions when he was around eight years old, starring in a number of plays and musicals throughout his academic career.

When it came to choosing a university degree, however, drama wasn't McKidd's first choice - he ended up enrolling in an Engineering course, but dropped out after two years. "I think I tried to fit into the mould of doing something sensible with my life, but I quickly realized that it wasn't for me," McKidd confesses with a laugh, "I always knew I wanted to be an actor. There's that old adage that you should always have something to fall back on and I just thought, ‘y'know what? I'm not gonna have anything to fall back on - I'm just gonna go for it.'" That determination paid off - McKidd completed a "very good, very thorough" drama course at Queen Margaret College and was soon scoring major roles in movies such as Trainspotting and Small Faces.

His latest big-screen role has McKidd playing the Greek god, Poseidon, in the family adventure film Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, released on February 12. "That film was a blast," the Scot exclaims, almost childlike in his enthusiasm. "It was so different to anything I've ever done, and my kids are so excited about it. They never get to watch me in any movie that I'm in, but this is something that they can actually take their friends to go and see." The film boasts an all-star cast including Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan and Sean Bean, though McKidd laments that he missed out on the chance for a fan experience of his own: "I was dying to meet Uma and Pierce, but they were [filming] different sections to me!"

Since his Grey's Anatomy schedule keeps him busy for nine months out of the year, it is often difficult for McKidd to commit to other projects, although he's contracted for four more Percy Jackson movies (the premise is based on a series of five books of the same name) if the first performs well at the box office. McKidd is also optimistic about the possibility of filming a movie sequel to his hit HBO series Rome over Anatomy's summer hiatus; "We knew it was an extraordinary thing to be a part of at the time," he reminisces. "It was very popular when it was on TV and seems like it's become more popular since it's been taken off the air. So I think it'll be a lot of fun to revisit those characters."

Although his screen work has consumed most of McKidd's time of late, the actor admits that he's longing to return to the medium that jumpstarted his career; theater work. "I know it sounds cliché, but I miss it a lot" he says soberly, "It's been eight years since I've been on stage. I think you can become very indulgent, working in film in particular, because you start thinking that it's all about you and how you feel, and actually, the whole point of what we're doing is what the people that have paid their money to come and sit there feel. It's what you communicate that counts."

As well as communicating through his acting roles, McKidd confides that he also has a deep-seated passion for music. "I'm a frustrated musician at heart," he chuckles, explaining that a number of his close friends are talented musicians - one is the lead guitarist for singer Corinne Bailey Rae. "I just like the immediacy of music. I think the simplicity of opening your mouth and playing an instrument and communicating something, without having to go into an editing suite before the end user gets to witness it, [is amazing]."

For a man who started out in an impoverished Scottish household, dreaming of being a movie star like so many other idealistic children, McKidd certainly wasn't prepared to let his background hinder his aspirations - another facet of Los Angeles' attitude he professes to admire. "It feels like there's more of a willingness to get up and try something here, the people will give things a shot; in Britain people just sit in front of their TVs and drink cups of tea and complain," he remarks sardonically. "Here it's more, ‘okay, that didn't work out, but I'll try something else.' I think that's why we like it here - so we're in no rush to leave!"

PHOTOGRAPHED AND STYLED BY HELLIN KAY
GROOMING BY LUSINE GALADJIAN