RISING SCOTTISH ACTOR, JOHN C GILMOUR
John C. Gilmour is a highly experienced actor and acting tutor born and raised in the West of Scotland. He has taken leading roles in numerous Scottish productions of recent plays such as My Child, The Hard Man and And Close my Eyes. He has also played Timon in Timon of Athens and Guildenstern in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
John made his screen debut as Nick in Solid Geometry directed by Denis Lawson and starring Ewan MacGregor, which was produced by Laurence Henry and Stella Marris for Scottish Television as well as being shown on Channel 4 26th November 2002. He has also acted in several short films.
John C. Gilmour on TIMELOCK
“Though I am a very experienced stage actor and have acted in several short films, Timelock was my first lead role in a feature film. As such I was keen to do my very best. Both Alton Milne and I wanted to make sure that we put in as much work as possible before we started shooting. We spent a lot of time improvising scenes in a rehearsal room, trying different set-ups and incorporating different exercises to develop the characters of Mark and Callum. David was very supportive of this process and would frequently alter the script on the basis of ideas we came up with. The real benefit of this was that we both felt very grounded in the characters by the time we started shooting.
“The filming itself was hard work with long shooting days and a lot of very early starts. That said I enjoyed every minute of it. We really bonded with the crew and we had a lot of laughs in the hotel bar in the evening. David was a hugely patient and helpful director; he often sought out my views on how I thought a scene should be played. I felt creatively invested in the whole process and I don’t think this is something that actors always get to experience.
“The one frustrating thing was how long it took me to learn how to play the Texas Hold’Em version of poker! Thankfully we got some people in who were all poker experts and they were a huge help (bizarrely one of them had the same name as my character, Mark Kerr).
“It was a terrific experience and I feel honoured that David decided to cast me in Timelock.”