The big easy

Published on Friday 28 March 2008 16:16

SEAN BIGGERSTAFF is drinking coffee in his Glasgow West End local and looking engrossed in a worn copy of John Lanchester's novel, The Debt To Pleasure. It's a strange sight.

This unassuming, slightly scruffy 25-year-old who tells me he was out last night until the small hours on the swings in Queen's Park is the same actor who was so adored in his role as Quidditch captain Oliver Wood in the first two Harry Potter films that more than 50,000 fans signed a petition demanding his return third time around.

"It's not what I need in my life," he says of the attention and globe-trotting that came with being part of a major cultural phenomenon. Six years on, he is still receiving fan mail and is convinced that at least a third of the population of Thailand has written to him. "Even when Harry Potter was at its peak, I was living at home in Glasgow and it was just something that I occasionally took part in. It's never had a profound effect on my life. Daniel (Radcliffe] has done really well and totally kept his head together, but I wouldn't change places with him for the world."

What is even stranger is that I didn't have to go through agents or film company publicists to secure an interview with Biggerstaff. I just phoned him up. He didn't suggest meeting in some swanky London hotel but here in his home city, not far from where he grew up in Maryhill. At one point, his phone starts ringing. "That's just my agent: he can wait," he says. Not exactly your average words from an actor who is between jobs.

Then again, there's nothing particularly average about Biggerstaff. The son of a fireman and a community worker, he decided at the tender age of seven that he wanted to be an actor. By 10 he was on stage at Glasgow's Tron Theatre in Michael Boyd's Macbeth. At 13 he landed a part in his first feature film, The Winter Guest, directed by Alan Rickman, who was so impressed by the teenage Biggerstaff when he discovered him at Scottish Youth Theatre that he asked his own agent to represent him. A week later, Biggerstaff was called to audition for Harry Potter.

Wasn't it hard keeping his feet on the ground with all this happening at such a young age? "I've got a family who won't let me crawl up my own arse and I've been doing this since I was so young I've got used to it over time," he says. This is what is so likeable about Biggerstaff: he is resolutely normal and has a refreshingly wise and sometimes withering attitude to fame. Coupled with his boyish good looks, hobbit-ish surname, and deep Glasgow brogue, it makes for a rather charming package and I'm not surprised he has been referred to as the hunk of Harry Potter. "I didn't see that coming and it makes no sense to me," he says shyly.

Lene Bausager, the producer of his upcoming film Cashback – adapted from a short of the same name that became a huge internet hit – has described Biggerstaff as "a very old soul in a young person's body". He counters: "It's not so much that I'm wise, it's more that I've always been a grumpy old man. I've never really felt my age, and I've always found it easier to get on with anyone other than my own peer group." That must have made working on Harry Potter ideal? "Yeah, it really was. There was a stuntman who was my age, but otherwise it was all carrying on and being stupid with the kids and then going and talking sensibly with the adults."

In Cashback, Biggerstaff takes on his first lead as Ben Willis, an artist-cum-supermarket-shelf-stacker, who is suffering from insomnia after a painful break-up and is obsessed with drawing the female figure. Directed by fashion photographer Sean Ellis, its short film version was shortlisted for a Bafta and its feature-length follow-up is sure to do well in this age of Knocked Up-style movies. It's typical testosterone-fuelled student fare, as much an excuse to get countless naked women on screen as anything else, though Biggerstaff valiantly defends it as an honest depiction of male fantasy. His performance, though, marks him out as a remarkably silent, sensitive actor, a less-is-more approach that he honed working with Rickman. "Alan always puts a lot of stock on the ability to do nothing on camera," he says. "It's a matter of opinion though – I'm sure some people watch the film and think, this guy isn't doing anything!"

Although Cashback was released elsewhere more than a year ago, it has taken a long time for it to return to its country of origin, which is strange considering it is a very British flick and much of the action takes place in Sainsbury's. It has only had one UK showing at last year's Glasgow Film Festival. "Britain is the hardest place in the world to sell a film," says Biggerstaff. "It seems that for a British film to be picked up here it has to be about one or the other extreme of the class divide. It's either a period drama with Judi Dench, or heroin addicts on a council estate. Anything in between gets a bit lost."

Earlier this year, Biggerstaff shot a short film in Glasgow called Voices with fellow Scottish actor Laura Fraser. The cast and crew worked for free and, looking at the moves Biggerstaff has made in recent years, he seems more interested in low budget, independent filmmaking than blockbuster franchises. "Actually, I tend to be motivated by what scripts come through the door," he laughs, pointing out that he recently shot another film, Hippie Hippie Shake, with Max Minghella, Cillian Murphy and Sienna Miller. "Because the reference point is always Harry Potter, everyone thinks, 'how come he's turning to independent film?' Actually, Harry Potter is a false precedent because it's the only thing that I've done like that – it's the odd one out. It's not like I'm being offered Hollywood on a plate and am turning it down."

Staying in Glasgow is important to Biggerstaff, though this has nothing to do with his career. "There's not much work here, but I like going back to my own bed at night. This is my home. If I were more career-minded I would have moved to London, New York or LA long ago. But if I did that, life would become entirely about the job. It's just not me." A year ago he moved out of his parents' place and bought a flat, where he loves having what he calls "gastronomical autonomy". "I'm getting so old I got a blender for my 25th birthday, and that's actually what I asked for," he laughs.

Interestingly, he gets his inspiration from music rather than film and theatre. He plays guitar – as does his father – and has a Glasgow band called Jonny and the Robots, who play loud, post-punk rock, though he stresses it's just for fun. "I think it's fairly common for the medium that you work in to not be the one that interests you most," he says. "I spend a lot more time listening to music than I do going to the theatre and watching films."

Acting, though, is the only job he ever wanted to do. "When I was eight I remember asking my parents 'can you do this acting thing for a job'? They said yes, and so I thought, well that's what I'll do. I never had the imagination to come up with something else, but it was good because it meant I could underachieve at school.

"I'm not someone who is a natural performer," he continues, which coming from most actors would sound like false modesty but actually rings true when Biggerstaff says it. "I'm not very extroverted. Actors can be divided into natural show people who love being the centre of attention and people who enjoy hiding behind a role. I'm definitely the hiding type."

Cashback is released May 9 www.cashbackthemovie