From struggling teenager to winner of an international Best Actor award for Schemers, meet Edinburgh's newest movie star Conor Berry

FROM Whisky Galore to Gregory’s Girls, Restless Natives to Local Hero and not forgetting That Sinking Feeling, the pantheon of Scottish film boasts a number of gems that epitomise the ever optimistic outlook of life in Scotland.

Edinburgh actor Conor Berry, star of Schemers

Next week, another will join that much-loved list with the release of Schemers, which finds Edinburgh actor Conor Berry making an award-winning on-screen debut.

Schemers is based on the true story of music manager David McLean’s ambitious 80’s gigs, which brought the likes of Simple Minds and even Iron Maiden to Dundee. Winner of the Audience Award at the 2019 Edinburgh Film Festival and of the Best Director Award at New York’s International Winter Film Awards, the movie tells the story of Davie, a dreamer from the council schemes.

After a football injury, Davie falls for a trainee nurse and sets out to impress her by promoting bands, culminating in a hugely ambitious Iron Maiden gig.

With an ambition so grand he goes deep into debt with a local gangster and needs to use every trick to pull off the biggest scheme of his life.

For Conor, whose portrayal of Davie landed him the Best Actor Award at New York’s International Winter Film Festival, it has all been a bit of whirlwind. The 26-year-old seems a bit bemused by the reaction the film has already caused but then, when he first saw a casting call for the movie on Facebook in 2016, he thought it was for a student film.

“The award really came as a surprise,” says the gangly, 6ft 1in tall actor who had only ever appeared in a couple of short films when he was 16 before landing the lead role. At the time, he had no idea how important those roles would prove.

He explains, “In one of them I was a wee guy that got beaten up and in the other one I was a junkie buying drugs, literally on screen for a split second. Back then, although I loved doing drama at school, acting didn’t seem something that was a realistic option for me, although when I was paid £70 for the day I thought, ‘Imagine getting paid £70 every day. That would be great’.”

Conor Berry in Schemers

Four years later, Conor recognised the name on that Facebook post looking for actors.

He continues, “Those shorts films had been given a screening in the Banshee’s Labyrinth for local filmmakers. One of the guys there that night was the guy who had posted on Facebook so I messaged him saying, ‘Hey mate, do you remember me...”

He did and a week later Conor found himself auditioning in London. He got the part. If landing the role of Davie was the start of a new journey for him, it was also the end of another.

Brought up in Wester Broom, where he attended Gylemuir Primary, Conor moved to Drum Brae at the age 12, when his parents parted company.

Conor Berry as Davie in Schemers

It was the start of a difficult few years as the teenager tried to come to terms with what was happening.

“I loved primary school. I had a great childhood; grew up playing football and then when mum and dad split up I moved to Drum Brae with my mum and went to Craigmount - five minutes walk along the road, which was great but I was still always late,” he grins. "But when my parents split, all the love went out of my life a wee bit, I guess. I was struggling but drama provided me with an escape.

"In hindsight, I realise that drama allowed me to express myself. Some days I’d skive school but still go in for my drama class, just for that hour. Drama helped me sort out my own situation with my mum and dad because that really affected me - without drama I don’t know what I would have done. I was lucky.”

School drama classes are “where it all started” he reflects. “I was pretty smart and got good grades but I wasn’t really a good student and drama was one of the only subjects I engaged in. I wasn’t a bad kid, just a bit cheeky, always wanting a laugh, some teachers would be up for that, others thought I was way over-stepping the mark.

Conor Berry as Davie in Schemers

“Miss Maloney, my drama teacher in fourth year, a wee tiny teacher, was great. One day she got us to make up our own plays based on topics. Me and my group got ‘gangs’, so we did these Pythonesque sketches about gangs through the ages, starting with Jesus and his disciples. It went down really well and the feeling I got after that was something I’d never had before. It was brilliant.”

On leaving school Conor won a place on the drama course at Telford, now Edinburgh College - he lasted just two weeks.

“Although I was 18, I wasn’t ready for it. Everyone was very open and willing to share their stories and I was still hiding within myself. So the thought of opening up to all those random people... on the occasions I had to, I bailed out, so I thought it wasn’t for me. It took a while and a few more experiences to bring me out of my shell.”

With jobs in retail (at Topman) and hospitality (as a kitchen porter), it would be another two years before Conor returned to his acting.

“Eventually I had the urge to get out of Edinburgh and headed off to Camp America, which was absolutely mental. I touched down in Maine and everyone was just so enthusiastic in that high energy American way that, me being me, I again tried to bail out... on the first day.

“I settled down a couple of days later and had the best summer of my life. Being Scottish people took to me and that gave me back my confidence. It was just what I needed.”

Over that four months Conor decided to once more pursue his love of acting, even auditioning for an acting school in New York.

“My dad came over to meet me for a few days. The audition was in wee studio, high up in a block on 38th Street, just opposite an Irish pub and I got offered a place. When I told him, my dad said we’d try and make it work but he didn’t have a lot of money and my mum didn’t have a lot of money - so it was never going to happen.”

Another year passed, then, now aged 21, Conor won a place at London’s Giles Forman Centre For Acting. Even then, coming from a working class background, it wasn’t easy.

He recalls, “The first stage was convincing my mum and dad because there was no way I could have done it without their support. That was the hardest thing for me, convincing them I could make a living out of it. My mum and I went to speak to my dad because I needed both their help. We sat down and he had the idea I should maybe work, make a living and then do it for myself. But that would have taken too long

“I remember talking straight to him and pleading, ‘I need to be doing this now’. He said, ‘That’s the only time in your life you have ever spoken to me like that.’ He saw my passion in that conversation and that was it.”

Working two jobs - removals at the weekend and in a bar week nights - to get by, Conor completed his course and quickly found himself being put up for roles in Poldark and the Steven Spielberg film Ready Player One. “I got two auditions for that and got really excited but they’d called me back by mistake,” he laughs.

Then, six months after finishing drama school, he saw that Facebook post. Cameras first rolled on Schemers in 2017 and it wrapped last year.

“I got the part in September 2016 but it was an organic experience and the filmed evolved over the next three years to what it is now," he says.

“I couldn’t believe it when I got the award but the thing that means the most to me was having both my mum and dad there at the World Premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival last year. Without them I couldn’t have done it.”

Schemers goes on general release from 25 September

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