Argo

Lessons Over Time

Scoot McNairy is an award winning actor and producer.
McNairy just wrapped a supporting role in John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place 2 as well as a supporting role in Andrew Dominik’s Blonde. In television he just starred opposite Anna Kendrick in the new HBOMax series Love Life.

Other recent projects include the second season of Narcos: Mexico – his character was introduced in the last episode of season one after narrating the entire season; as well as the third season of the hit HBO series True Detective opposite Mahershala Ali. Prior to this, he shot a supporting role in the Nicole Kidman film Destroyer, directed by Karyn Kusama.

Scoot’s critically acclaimed AMC series Halt and Catch Fire came to an end in 2017 after four seasons. That year he also guest starred in the opening episode of the third season of FX’s Fargo, directed by Noah Hawley.

Previous films includeThe Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter, directed by Jody Hill and starring Danny McBride and Josh Brolin; Sleepless, opposite Jamie Foxx and Michelle Monaghan; the lead opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Aftermath, directed by Elliott Lester and produced by Darren Aronofsky; and Scoot also reteamed with David Michod for Netflix’s War Machine, starring Brad Pitt.

Named one of Variety’s “10 Actors to Watch” in 2012, McNairy’s other films as actor include Zack Snyder’s globally anticipated Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice; David Gordon Green’s Our Brand is Crisis, in which he starred opposite Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton; Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly, in which he was the lead opposite Brad Pitt, and for which he was honored as a Breakthrough Performer at the Hamptons International Film Festival; David Fincher’s Gone Girl, opposite Ben Affleck; Kevin
MacDonald’s Black Sea opposite Jude Law; Jaume Collet-Serra’s hit Non-Stop, opposite Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore; Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank opposite Michael Fasbender and Maggie Gyllenhaal ; David Michod’s The Rover opposite Guy Pearce and Rob Pattinson; Lynn Shelton’s Touchy Feely opposite Ellen Page; Megan Griffiths’ The Off Hours; Terry Zwigoff’s Art School Confidential; and, also for Focus Features, Gus Van Sant’s Promised Land opposite Matt Damon and Frances McDormand.

He was a Best Actor nominee at the 2010 British Independent Film Awards for his performance in the acclaimed independent

film Monsters, written and directed by Gareth Edwards. The year prior, In Search of a Midnight Kiss, which McNairy both starred in and produced, was honored with the John Cassavetes Award [the Best Feature Made For Under $500,000] at the Independent Spirit Awards. The movie was written and directed by Alex Holdridge.

He shared a Screen Actors Guild Award with his fellow actors from the ensembles of Ben Affleck’s Argo and Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave when they were voted Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture; in addition to many other honors, both films went on to win Academy Award for Best Picture in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

On the production side, McNairy has formed The Group Films with John Pierce and they are currently in production on McNairy’s directorial debut. Their film Frank and Cindy, starring Rene Russo and Oliver Platt, premiered at the 2015 Los Angeles Film Festival. The film is now available on Netflix and iTunes. The company’s previous productions include James Cox’s Straight A’s, starring Ryan Phillippe, Anna Paquin, and Luke Wilson. Separately, McNairy recently reteamed with Gareth Edwards, as executive producers of Tom Green’s Monsters: Dark Continent, the sequel to Monsters.

Resources

LINKS:

• IMDB: Scoot McNairy
• TWITTER: @scootmcnairy

QUOTES:

“A pivotal point for me was when my pops asked me ‘what’s the one job you could have, and you’d wake up every morning, and just jump out of bed because you wanted to go to work so bad?’ I thought… I’d love to hold a wire or an electrical cable on a movie set.”

“I learned to audition through the commercial process. You have 30 secs to get these people to want to hang out with you for entire day.”

“After you’ve been doing this awhile, it is the same relationships bringing you back.”

VIDEOS:

Credits:

• WRITER: Lizzy Dalla Betta
• SOUND DESIGN: Zachary Jameson
• WEBSITE & GRAPHICS: Chase Jennings
• ASSISTANT: Elle Powell
• SOCIAL OUTREACH: Bebe Katsenes