Grey’s Anatomy and Trainspotting star Kevin McKidd on new crime thriller Six Four, Spielberg and Christopher Walken

Filming in Edinburgh and Glasgow took the Scottish actor back to his roots but Stateside he’s met Spielberg and found himself alone in a gym with Christopher Walken

Rumours of a new TV series called Taggart’s Dad can be traced back to Scottish Trainspotting actor Kevin McKidd, who spent his summer break from starring in long-running US medical drama Grey’s Anatomy to film a new crime thriller series for ITVX in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Called Six Four it’s written by acclaimed Scottish script writer and playwright Gregory Burke and is inspired by the international bestselling book by Japanese author Hideo Yokoyama. Starring McKidd, Vinette Robinson, [last seen in Boiling Point with Stephen Graham] it is the latest must-binge drama to one-drop on ITVX.

Speaking from sunny LA, where he’s back filming the 19th series of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, McKidd laughs as he admits starting the rumours.

“Being back home in Scotland and making Six Four was a lot of fun. Filming in Edinburgh and Glasgow there were people hanging out of windows going ’what are you filming?’, ‘is that you fae Trainspotting?’ and we started saying ‘it’s a new show called Taggart’s Dad, a spin-off and I’m playing Taggart’s dad’. That’s what we told people, just for a laugh.”

Six Four is nothing like Taggart, but McKidd did feel echoes of Trainspotting, one of two break out films in which he starred back in 1996, in streets scenes included in episode one.

“There’s a bit that felt like a call back to the opening sequence of Trainspotting, that breakneck race down Princes Street, with a chase to Waverley Station. Maybe subconsciously I felt that, I don’t know. But it was a blast.”

McKidd was delighted to be back in Scotland making a crime drama on home turf after years in the States since he started on Grey’s Anatomy in 2008.

“It was great to be home. I get horribly homesick and I’ve been wanting to work in Scotland for some time so it felt true, like a lovely homecoming. A lot of the crew, and some cast, were people I’d worked with for years. And I was able to go home to Elgin and see family a lot.

“Also it’s the first time I’ve played a detective so it really felt like a departure and it was fun. Kind of weirdly relaxing, even though it was an exhausting shoot and basically took up my whole summer break before I went straight back into Grey’s Anatomy, but it was worth it.”

In Six Four McKidd plays Chris O’Neill, a policeman already reeling from the disappearance of his own daughter, who takes on the cold case of another missing girl, and the action is hard hitting from the start.

“It’s such a powerful, gut-punch of an opener and that’s what hooked me in and I think will grab the audience. That scenario of Chris and his wife Michelle walking into a morgue and looking at a body that might be their daughter is a very immediate thing people can relate to because that's every parent’s worst nightmare. Having a missing child is the worst thing that could happen. That's where this show starts, right in that moment. And then the complicated, multi-layered, suspenseful story bleeds out gradually over four episodes.”

With four children of his own, did that make the role harder to play?

“Yeah. My kids are all over here now in America so I wasn't with them for quite an extended period of time so I was quite isolated and missing them, and that helped get into that head space”.

As well as the missing child and cold case mystery with links to the present day, Six Four has a political element to the plot that reflect aspects of contemporary Scotland.

“I thought that was really interesting,” says McKidd. “There’s so much going on right now in politics. In Scotland Nicola Sturgeon has resigned, for many valid reasons I think. Politics in general across the world at the moment is very polarised and becoming a more dangerous place to be, so I don’t blame her.”

“In Six Four there’s a sense of some kind of cover up and I think that is a feeling the public has a lot. Conspiracy theories get their foothold because we have this sense we're not being told everything. Gregory has focused on crime cases but also political moves and gamesmanship that seem to intersect so you don’t know what is actually happening. That search for the truth is something Chris is very much ignited by, and I think it’s what we all want from our politicians, and the discourse of our society, honesty and transparency. I think it’s a very primal thing Gregory has latched onto there, with all these storylines intersecting.”

With the multi-layered plot that twists and turns, with every answer comes more questions.

“Chris O’Neill becomes doggedly obsessed with somebody telling him the truth - in this cold case that he’s dealing with, with his own missing daughter, and what his older brother, who is a senior policeman and connected very much to the upper levels of Scottish politics is involved in. There's something going on that doesn’t smell right.”

O’Neill also has a breakdown of trust with his wife, played by Vinette Robinson, who McKidd enjoyed working with for the first time.

“She’s a phenomenal actress and very dedicated and committed to finding the truth in every moment. Yes Michelle is carrying a big secret but Chris has done some things that have really damaged the trust too so there’s a lot of healing to be done.”

In contrast, McKidd has worked many times before with co-star James Cosmo, including on One Night in Emergency in 2010 [also written by Gregory Burke], One Last Chance in 2004, and he laughs as he remembers The Last Legion in 2007, starring Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley.

“Me and Jim were playing the two villainous Visigoth warriors, filming in North Africa in the summer. We were on horseback, wearing sheepskins all the time and I had a long ginger wig and he had a nice bald head, so he got the better end of the stick.”

In Six Four Cosmo gets physical with McKidd’s detective and at one point physically throws him out of his flat.

“He goes to the gym religiously, is committed, very fit, very able, so when James Cosmo picks you up by the scruff of the neck you know that it’s going to feel real,” he laughs.

In playing O’Neill, McKidd, the son of a plumber and a secretary, was also able to relate to the dynamic of being a younger brother.

“I have a big brother who is about five years senior to me who in our childhood was kind of the star and a very talented football player and I was kind of the ‘what is this guy doing?’, being in plays at school and quietly in the background doing my own thing. So I just really liked that dynamic of the family structure. It felt familiar for me.”

It was also a chance for the actor to use his own accent after playing Doctor Owen Hunt on Grey’s Anatomy since 2008.

“I was kind of nervous thinking I've been playing an American for so long that maybe my Scottish accent, when it comes to it, people are going to question it. But no, it was fine.”

After training as an actor in Edinburgh, McKidd’s breakout year was 1996, with the role of gang leader Malky in Small Faces, and Trainspotting and he went on to other TV roles such as HBO’s Rome which led to Grey’s Anatomy, but he never expected the medical drama job to last as long as it has.

“I didn't really choose my career. You take what you’re offered and that’s why I'm very grateful for the opportunities I've had. Did I expect this role to last as long? Absolutely not. Most actors get a TV show for two or three seasons, and that's a big success, so to be on a show now for 14 seasons, I did not see that coming at all, and will probably never see that again in my career. I'm enjoying the hell out of it still, and still appreciating it.”

As well as the chance to hone a character over a long period of time, Grey’s Anatomy has given McKidd the chance to step into directing, taking the helm of 30 episodes so far.

“I direct four episodes every season so again, I'm very grateful to that show. To get a break as a director in the British system is very hard, and I never felt that opportunity would open itself up to me back in Britain. Less so now, but 20 years ago it really did feel like you had to have the right school tie, all that kind of stuff, to get in the door. There was more opportunity for me over here. I don't think I would have been directing the way that I am to the level that I am if I hadn't come over here. So I still feel grateful every day I get to go in to work.”

“The other thing is everybody’s like a family. We’ve seen births, deaths, marriages, and lived life with each other through all these seasons. And that is to be appreciated because that won't happen again.”

If McKidd couldn’t have foreseen how long Grey’s Anatomy would run or the success that has come his way, he’s been adept at going with the flow of opportunities when they arise.

“Unless there's a compelling reason not to, I'm very much about saying yes to things, because we've only got one life, we've only got one go around, so if things present themselves you should consider them. And if something presents itself and it scares the living shit out of you then you should REALLY consider it. That's usually the universe saying this is what you need to do next because you're terrified to do it. If somebody came to me and said ‘I want you to play the lead in a big musical on Broadway, starting rehearsals next month, that would terrify me. Which is the reason why I should probably do it.”

I take his point, but McKidd can in fact sing. In fact last time we spoke, during lockdown he was busy recording a charity single, Leave A Light On, to raise funds for the Trussell Trust and Help Musicians UK. So maybe a musical isn’t such a wild idea.

He laughs. “Yeah but it’s still terrifying.”

He’s also aware that being an actor is a risky business, having had periods when the jobs didn’t come, not least after Trainspotting, and has this advice for young actors starting out:

“For me nothing was an overnight success, and in this business I would say rejection is part of it. It’s grist to the mill, so don't let that put you off. Just hear the word ‘No’, get rejected and move on. Keep moving forward. That's all we can do as actors.”

“You have to grow a thick skin but in a weird way it's part of what makes you a good actor. You have to go through those years of being knocked back for it to kind of metabolise in your system, and it makes you a better actor ultimately.”

So having tasted disappointment it makes you more patient, or rounded as an actor?

“Yes. There's a rawness to being an actor. You’re exposing yourself in a way not many other things do. You're being critiqued, criticized, torn down, picked apart, and it takes a strong metabolism to be able to handle that and still be natural in front of the camera or on stage because it can make you feel incredibly self conscious, or make acting choices that don't feel organic. I always get nervous for young actors who get a lot of success really quickly. I don't think it's ultimately healthy for them, for their journey, for their craft. It almost short circuits the process.”

Meanwhile back in LA, McKidd is busy shooting Grey’s Anatomy, after season 18 ended on a cliffhanger surrounding Dr Hunt, and fans will be glad to know there’s no talk of it ending any time soon.

“No, no, I'm back,” he says. “As we speak there's no end in sight. I remember when I started on Grey's on season 5, all the regulars who'd been there since season one would say ‘how many more seasons do you think this show’s got, maybe one maybe two,’ and we've been saying the same thing ever since.”

Living in LA gives McKidd to rub shoulders with some big names, so has he ever been starstruck?

“Oh yeah, I was in the gym two years ago in The Chateau Marmont - they have this wee gym at the top - and it was just me on my own, and Christopher Walken walks in and gets on the step machine. There was only me and him in this tiny little gym and I was like ‘I’ve got to leave because I'm totally tongue-tied. I can't just be carrying on working out with Christopher Walken here. So I left.”

He also met Steven Spielberg when he visited his step-daughter Jessie Capshaw [Arizona Robbins] on the Grey’s Anatomy set at the Universal lot.

“We were shooting a baseball scene and here comes Spielberg. Now, the reason I became an actor in the first place was because I saw ET in the Elgin playhouse at the Saturday matinee, so I finally got to meet the guy who created it. And I was completely tongue-tied, couldn’t speak to him. He was like, ‘heeeey, you're a Scottish actor, you have a good accent, nice to meet you,’ and I was like ‘Hullo.’ After he left Jessica said, ‘Why didn't you tell him?’ because I tell everyone the reason I became an actor was because of ET. I don’t know, I just couldn’t do it. Couldn’t find the words.”

An admittedly shy person underneath, McKidd has nevertheless tasted success beyond his own expectations. With talk of a possible follow up of Six Four, as well as rumblings of a film revisiting Small Faces, and a new series of Grey’s on the go, McKidd is happy with how things have turned out. But no matter how much audiences like Six Four, there’s one person McKidd hopes will be impressed with his latest show.

“I hope people love it and enjoy it, but my whole thing when we were making it, is about my dad. He sits up in his house in Elgin and watches every single crime or thriller-y thing, and he's so good at watching the plot that if his hand slams on the arm of his chair and he says, ‘I know what's gonna happen, I’ve figured it out,’ you know that’s it. You didn't pass the Neil McKidd test. So what I want for this is that it passes the Neil McKidd test and he can't guess until the very end what is going on. I think we’ve passed the Neil McKidd test, but he hasn't seen it yet. I’ll let you know once he does.”

Not so much Taggart’s dad, as Kevin’s.

Six Four starts streaming on 30 March on ITVX with all four episodes available.

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