Christian McKay

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Christian McKay as Grant Pierce ("Creditors"); 2013

Christian McKay (born November 11, 1973 in Bury , Lancashire ) is a British theater and film actor. He became known to a wide audience for his repeated portrayal of Orson Welles in the play Rosebud (2004) and the feature film Ich & Orson Welles (2008).

biography

childhood and education

Christian McKay was born in England to Scottish parents. His father was a rail worker, his mother worked as a hairdresser. He started playing the piano at the age of two. He has also been involved in theatrical performances since early childhood. McKay initially preferred music and trained as a classical pianist with a Polish teacher. His further musical education took him to the University of Manchester , the renowned Royal College of Music in London and the Queensland Conservatory of Griffith University in Australia . At the age of 21 he mastered, among other things, Rachmaninoff's 3rd piano concerto . He later worked as a concert pianist and played instrumental concerts with orchestras.

McKay first came in contact with acting as a choir member at Manchester Cathedral , where he appeared as an extra in an episode of the 1983-1994 Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett . Brett was impressed by McKay's musical talent, but predicted the boy would have an acting career. In his late twenties, he turned increasingly to acting, which he had previously only pursued as a hobby. He traveled from Manchester to London and trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art . His teacher there, however, gave him little chance of success due to his immature facial features. After the role of a eunuch in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (1999), a production of the Royal Shakespeare Company , McKay's acting career stagnated and he earned his living with occasional appearances as a concert pianist.

Successes as Orson Welles

McKay's breakthrough as a stage actor came in 2004 when he was cast because of his great resemblance to the young Orson Welles in the one-man show Rosebud: The Lives of Orson Welles by his friend, director Josh Richards. The piece was written by the Welsh author Mark Jenkins, who had previously attracted attention with a one-man show about Richard Burton ( Playing Burton ). The show covered Welles' success with the radio play about War of the Worlds until he left Hollywood and accepted commercials to try to fund his later films. Rosebud won an award at the Edinburgh Festival in the fall of 2004 and earned McKay high praise from critics.

After a dispute with the producers and the interim sale of the rights to the play, McKay appeared as an angry and disappointed Orson Welles on the London stage and in 2007 off-Broadway in New York . His engagement in the United States made the film director Richard Linklater aware of the still relatively unknown actor. Although McKay had only made a guest appearance in the British soap opera Doctors (2004) and a small role in the television movie Riot at the Rite (2005), Linklater gave him the role of Orson Welles in the British-American cinema production Ich & Orson Welles .

The drama is a film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Robert Kaplow and focuses on a young person (played by Zac Efron ) who took on a supporting role in the theater production Julius Caesar des young Welles at the Mercury Theater in 1937 . McKay received fabulous reviews for his re-portrayal of the American director and actor. Roger Ebert ( Chicago Sun-Times ) praised McKays Welles as the “showpiece” of the film, while fellow critic AO Scott ( The New York Times ) praised the British for his “superhuman self-confidence” and his apparent joy in playing.

McKay's film debut earned him several film awards, including a Best Supporting Actor award from the San Francisco Film Critics Circle and a nomination for the British Academy Film Award . Other film offers followed, including the role of an MI6 agent in the Howard Marks biography Mr. Nice and a role in Woody Allen's I See the Man of Your Dreams alongside Naomi Watts , Anthony Hopkins and Josh Brolin (both 2010). In 2011 McKay took on the recurring role of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza in the European television series Borgia .

Christian McKay is married to actress Emily Allen and lives in a Kent village . With Allen he founded the theater group Atomic 80 , whose name is based on Welles' Mercury Theater (Eng .: Mercury , whose atomic number is 80). She also took on the role of Virginia Welles in Me and Orson Welles.

Plays (selection)

Filmography (selection)

Awards

British Academy Film Award

  • 2010 : Nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Me and Orson Welles

Further

Austin Film Critics Association

  • 2009: Breakthrough Artist Award for Me and Orson Welles

British Independent Film Awards

  • 2010: Nominated Best Young Actor for Me and Orson Welles

Broadcast Film Critics Association

  • 2010: Nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Me and Orson Welles

Chicago Film Critics Association

  • 2009: Nominated in the categories of Best Supporting Actor and Best Newcomer for Me and Orson Welles

Independent Spirit Awards

  • 2010: Nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Me and Orson Welles

London Critics Circle Film Awards

  • 2010: Nominated for Best British Actor of the Year for Me and Orson Welles

San Francisco Film Critics Circle

  • 2009: Best Supporting Actor for Me and Orson Welles

Utah Film Critics Association Award

  • 2009: Best Supporting Actor for Me and Orson Welles

Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award

  • 2009: Nominated for Best Young Actor for Me and Orson Welles

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e cf. Smith, Krista: Sleeper Oscar Contender Christian McKay on Channeling Orson Welles ( Memento of the original from February 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at vanityfair.com, January 28, 2010 (accessed February 1, 2010) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vanityfair.com
  2. ↑ cf. An awesome welles . In: Sunday Express, December 6, 2009, p. 52
  3. ↑ cf. Portman, Jamie: A virtuoso at the keyboard and on screen . In: The Vancouver Sun (British Columbia), December 17, 2009, p. D13
  4. ↑ cf. Johnston, Sheila: Christian McKay: Me and Orson Welles at theartsdesk.com, December 1, 2009 (accessed February 2, 2010)
  5. ↑ a b cf. Gritten, David: Christian McKay interview at telegraph.co.uk, November 26, 2009 (accessed February 2, 2010)
  6. ↑ cf. Playing an Icon . In: South Wales Evening Post, June 25, 2004, p. 2
  7. ↑ cf. Ebert, Roger: Behind the scenes with a true legend . In: Chicago Sun-Times, December 11, 2009, p. B1
  8. ↑ cf. Scott, AO: When a Bombastic Young Man Bestrode the Boards of the Mercury Theater . In: The New York Times, November 25, 2009, Section C, The Arts / Cultural Desk, p. 6
personal data
SURNAME McKay, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH Bury , England