Interview: Kevin Gurthrie

Kevin Guthrie

The star of Sunshine on Leith and Sunset Song reflects on his ascent from Renfrewshire youth theatre productions to appearing in major films.

Kevin Guthrie was a shy child. As it happens, that turned out to be a blessing. “Mum and dad thought it would be a good idea if myself and my older sisters went to PACE Youth Theatre in Paisley,” he recalls. “I actually went there to combat shyness, as I wasn’t particularly confident. So every Saturday morning, as well as going to football, I’d be going to PACE. I remember at the time not really loving it, but subconsciously thinking there was actually something quite different about it.”

Gradually, acting and performing captured his imagination. “I did some pantomimes and theatre shows with them. The more I performed, without really being aware of it, I was actually really enjoying it.”

Did those early years of treading the boards eventually cure his shyness?

“Absolutely,” he says. “There’s a confidence that comes from acting and performing. I still wouldn’t say I’m the most confident socially, I still feel like I have to brace myself for certain social situations. It’s a bit of a running joke in the family that I can perform to millions of people worldwide, but not in front of my nearest and dearest.”

Born in 1988, Guthrie attended St Thomas’ Primary School in Neilston, before going on to St Luke’s High School in Barrhead. It was there that his future as an acclaimed star of stage and screen was cemented.

“I had a really brilliant drama teacher at St Luke’s, Amanda Gracie, who properly put me on the path. She said it was something I was really good at and I should think about it more seriously. I played Bugsy in Bugsy Malone, I played Danny Zucco in Grease, and by that point I was beginning to get parts in Still Game and adverts. It grew arms and legs from there really.”

After graduating from St Luke’s, Guthrie studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (then known as the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) in Glasgow, which had recently been attended by another PACE alumnus, James McAvoy. Following in McAvoy’s footsteps was part of the ambitious young Guthrie’s career plan.

As he explains: “I’ve always tracked careers like Robert Carlyle, James McAvoy, these guys from this neck of the woods, similar height and casting bracket. Having seen them create a pathway, I decided it was time for me to step up to the plate.”

Guthrie eventually got the chance to work with his idols. In 2015 he had a prominent supporting role in Carlyle’s directorial debut, The Legend of Barney Thomson. Two years prior, he appeared in

a well-received London production of Macbeth starring McAvoy. That came about after he befriended the X-Men star during their time together playing in an all-actors football team (Guthrie is an avid Celtic fan).

As he recalls, “One day he rang me up and said, ‘I’m going to do Macbeth, Kev, how do you feel about being in it with me?’ I remember thinking, My God, if you’d told me ten years ago that McAvoy would be on the phone offering me a theatre gig in London, I would’ve thought you were off your head! It was a really nice way for us to come together, and from then on we’ve been good friends.”

Guthrie’s big film break was his co-starring role in the hit Proclaimers musical, Sunshine On Leith, in 2013.

“I was absolutely terrified at the prospect of it being released,” he laughs, “because contrary to what a lot of people think, I wasn’t the most confident singer. When you get labelled as that musical guy, you think that all of a sudden you’re going to be offered all these musical roles! I’m not sure I wanted to be doing that. But I’m so lucky to have been a part of something that is ultimately so positive.”

From there he went straight on to a leading role in director Terence Davies’ critically acclaimed adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbons’ classic Scottish novel, Sunset Song.

“That is probably one of the most complex characters I’ve ever read, let alone performed,” he says. “I was so grateful to be handed an epic role in an epic film. Sometimes you go through a career and you might only get one Sunshine on Leith or one Sunset Song. To be an actor who was given both in the space of eighteen months, I was thanking my lucky stars.”

Guthrie has a slate of films due for release next year, chief among them the sequel to J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Boyz in the Wood, an offbeat comedy in which he co-stars with Kate Dickie, James Cosmo and Eddie Izzard. From the outside it looks as though Guthrie has risen through the ranks with ease. Not so, he says.

“From the get-go, I was always very clear with my agent that I didn’t really want overnight success. I didn’t want to be seen as a one-trick pony with one big hit, I’ve always wanted to pick work that feels high-calibre.”

“I’ve always worked extremely hard,” he says, “but the just rewards always happen when you get offered a job and build a profile of work that stands the test of time.”