FRAZER Hadfield might have grown up in the north west of England, but he also grew up being told he was Scottish.
This was perhaps best made clear to him when his Scottish mother was left so disgusted at her son being bought an England football top for his birthday one year that she threw it in the bin and replaced it with a Scotland one.
“I was proudly wearing my Scotland shirt to school after that,” the actor says, laughing.
As well as his family links, Hadfield attended the University of St Andrews and has done plenty of work at the Fringe.
Now, he’s starring in the new Robbie Williams biopic Better Man – in which Williams is portrayed as a chimp – and speaks to The National about his memories of the Fringe, working on his biggest film to date and what he misses most about Scotland.
The festival
Like any aspiring actor, comedian or musician, Hadfield has plenty of memories of the Edinburgh Fringe.
And he says there’s nothing that gives you a bit of grounding than performing your show to an audience of less than 10 people.
He was always used to performing, having been a choir boy as a youngster and joking about how it was encouraged by his mum.
“She used to stand me on a chair at social gatherings and sing the song from The Snowman (Walking in the Air),” he explains.
“But the Fringe is people paying money and they don’t know you so it’s a bit more cutthroat.
“You’re straight into the fire and it thickens your skin. I did a show and I think there was 10 of us in the cast with two people in the audience which is the reality a lot of the time.
“It’s exposing but it is fun to do it with small crowds. It feels special, as though you’re really doing it for these two people.
“I wasn’t nervous then. When you’re younger and a bit green it’s all just exciting.”
What was less exciting was the actor’s living arrangements during his time at the festival.
“I think there was 14 of us in a two-bedroom house. I slept on a mat in the corridor and people had to keep waking me up because my head was against the toilet door.
“That’s the proper Fringe, right?”
Better Man
Hadfield has come a long way since sleeping against a bathroom door in the capital, taking on a role in the new Robbie Williams biopic Better Man.
He plays Nate and, unlike every other role in the film, is not specifically a real person but rather an amalgamation of the central character’s friends.
“Everyone else had someone to sit down with and get to know, hours of video footage and mannerisms to copy,” he says.
“It was freeing (not having that). I got this really well-written character and I was lucky enough that the director (Michael Gracey) said this is yours.
“I had a lot of agency and it was good not to be thinking ‘does this person hold their hands like that or talk in that pattern of speech’.
“I was actively encouraged not to look people up because a lot of his friends aren’t actually in the spotlight.”
In the film, Williams is portrayed as a chimpanzee because, as he puts it, he always felt “less evolved” than others.
Strange? Certainly. But the film has been met with positive reviews after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival.
“People in America are loving the film but when audiences see it here, they’ll have a different relationship to it I think,” the actor says.
“He’s not as big a property out there but here everyone knows the songs. It’s an amazing drama, it’s a spectacle.
“He’s (Williams) so honest about his life and willing to not look so great. It isn’t shrouded in PR moves on his side – he just tells it as it is.
“If you’re watching in America though, it’s all this incredible music that you’re taking it from. I think it’s a really clever way to make the film.”
Missing Scotland
Hadfield is based south of the Border, but that hasn’t stopped him chasing some Scottish comforts.
Asked what he misses most about Scotland, anyone expecting a sentimental answer would perhaps be left disappointed.
“Square sausage,” he says without hesitation.
“I’ve done a deep dive into how to make my own and have ordered stuff online.
“There’s a butchers down the road who say they’re Scottish and do square sausage but I’m telling you they don’t.
“I should probably say my family is the thing I miss about Scotland. But really it’s the square sausage.”
