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E-mailEmmett Scanlan - Hollywood's next Colin Farrell
Irish actor star of new MTV reality show
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Irish actor and MTV's newest star Emmett Scanlan is Hollywood’s next Colin Farrell.
“Actually, I think what you’ve been reading is that I’m ‘the poor man’s Colin Farrell,’” Scanlan told IrishCentral.com from his temporary digs in L.A.
Either way, the up-and-coming actor doesn’t mind. “I couldn’t give a shite,” he said. “As long as people are talking about you, I guess it’s okay.”
The born and bred north Dubliner is the star of MTV’s new action-packed reality show, “The Phone,” which is produced by Justin Timberlake.
Scanlan plays The Operator, who along with his two “agents” leads young (and clueless) game contestants through dangerous challenges in competition for the grand prize. Scanlan sums up the show in the opening credits: “Four players, two teams, but only one will survive – to win $50,000.”
The high-stakes game show premiered on MTV last week to mixed reviews. But with Justin Timberlake’s name and Scanlan's fresh face associated with the show, it’s creating quite a buzz. The New York Post notes that Scanlan is “incredibly good looking,” another paper referred to him as “a hungover Pierce Brosnan” (Scanlan says he has no idea what that means), while the Irish media is dubbing him their next “bad boy.”
Though “The Phone” is certainly not Scanlan’s first television role, it is the first large-scale project he’s worked on for U.S. audiences.
“What a sweet gig to land – my first gig,” Scanlan said.
In each episode, Scanlan, with his dark, dramatic Irish accent, calls up four strangers, turning their average day into a wild adventure where they will go head-to-head as they race to complete their assigned challenge.
The cheeky actor is enjoying the power the role of The Operator brings. “I get to be the mastermind in this game. These people have no idea what’s happening from one minute to the next, and I get to toy with their emotions, f**k with them, push them a little bit,” he said.
Scanlan has had lots of practice playing dark roles. In the Irish gangster film “3 Crosses,” he plays a “demonic,” bare knuckle fighting character seeking revenge for his brother’s murder, while in the upcoming Irish thriller “Savage,” he plays a “male chauvinistic pig who starts fights.”
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