Screen star Dougray Scott on his new role encouraging young Scots to pursue film and TV careers

Actor Dougray Scott.

Scottish screen star Dougray Scott has revealed he is to take on a new role to help encourage young Scots to pursue careers in the film and TV industries.

More than 30 years after his first screen appearances, the Fife-born star has become a new Scottish ambassador for a charity which works with schools across the UK.

Actor Dougray Scott. Picture: Dave Benett | Dave Benett

Sir Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, Jamie Dornan and Michael Sheen are among the other actors who work with Into Film.

Scott, who was born in Glenrothes, studied acting and performance at Fife College before winning a place at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Dougray Scott leading the Tartan Day parade in New York (Pic: Kylie Corwin)

Recalling how his own interest in acting developed, the Emmy Award-winning actor told The Scotsman: "I was an avid reader in my early teens and would spend a lot of time in the local library.

"As well as reading novels’, I read many plays. When I read Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, I was struck by the collision between art and life, my father being a salesman himself.

"Then I did a production of Suddenly, Last summer, by Tennessee Williams, at school and I knew I would be an actor.

"I never really thought about how my career would pan out when I was younger, only that I wanted to act. I had fleeting visions of being in films, but also of performing on stage. I guess I was manifesting, without being aware."

Into Film provides information, advice and training resources for teachers to try to inspire a new generation of film and TV talent to emerge.

It also runs a three-week festival of free film screenings and special events across the UK, which attracted more than 350,000 attendees across around 500 cinemas this year.

Scott said: "There are many aspects of the film industry that are as important as each other. A film is the sum of many parts and no-one can create in a vacuum. Every department is as important as the other and contributes in an invaluable way.

"Screen education would be a great subject to be included in the school curriculum. The arts are often seen as a luxury when it comes to govt funding, but I see it as critical to a nation's heart and soul.

"Without the creative arts, we are rudderless and lost. Art is a great mirror to our whole lives."

Scott's first major roles, in the 1990s, were in the TV dramas Soldier Soldier and The Crow Road, followed by the feature films Regeneration, Twin Town, Ever After and Deep Impact.

His other major film roles have seen him work with Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 2 and with Kate Winslet in Enigma.

More recent roles have seen Scott play the lead character of troubled Edinburgh detective Ray Lennox in Irvine Welsh's adaptation of his Crime novels series, as well as star in the second series of the BBC thriller series Vigil and the Sky Max crime thriller A Town Called Malice.

Scott added: "When I first started acting in films, it seemed there was a healthier independent film industry, compared to today, but I do see a resurgence of some sort, and am optimistic that the industry is getting stronger and will continue to gather pace.

"I think Screen Scotland is a great champion and supporter of the Scottish Screen industry."

Slow Horses star Jack Lowden and Katie Leung, who is best known for playing Cho Chang in the Harry Potter franchise, have previously been appointed as Into Film Scottish ambassadors.