Samuel Bottomley was “very scared” about his Scottish accent in California Schemin’

English actor Samuel Bottomley, 24, has opened up about the daunting challenge of mastering a Scottish accent for his lead role in California Schemin’, now playing in UK cinemas, admitting he felt “very, very scared” performing the accent in front of a Scottish cast and director.

Performing under pressure — and in front of James McAvoy

Speaking to Cover Media in a joint interview with co-star Séamus McLean Ross, Bottomley described the weight of getting his Scottish accent right on a production surrounded by authentically Scottish voices.

The actor pointed specifically to working opposite James McAvoy — both the film’s director and a Glaswegian himself — as a source of particular anxiety. “It’s very daunting, man, especially acting in front of McAvoy,” Bottomley said, according to Film-News.co.uk. “He’s a Scotsman himself — you want to get it right.”

The pressure was amplified by the film’s Scottish director and the involvement of Ross, who is himself Scottish and plays Gavin Bain, the other half of the real-life rap duo Silibil N’ Brains.

A double accent challenge — Scottish and a “bad American”

The role required Bottomley to navigate not just one unfamiliar accent but two. His character Billy Boyd and his partner fake being Californian rappers to bypass the music industry’s bias against Scottish voices — meaning Bottomley had to portray a Scotsman doing a deliberately unconvincing American accent.

“You have to chart where you’re at with it,” he explained to Cover Media. “I feel like the bad American is harder to do than the good American, because we had to put bits of Scottish in there. My bad American — you can’t hear bits of English, you’ve got to hear bits of Scottish. So it was a bit higgledy-piggledy.”

Reviewers have noted that the feat paid off. Writing for Flickfeast, critic David Watson described Bottomley as “effortlessly pulling double-duty on the accent front — delivering impeccable Scots plus American filtered through a Scottish tongue.”

The true story behind the film

California Schemin’ is based on the remarkable real-life story of Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd — two young men from Dundee who, after being dismissed at a record label audition because of their Scottish accents, reinvented themselves as fake Californian rappers. According to Wikipedia, the duo eventually landed a record deal and even toured with Eminem before the deception unravelled.

The film adapts Bain’s 2010 memoir California Schemin’: How Two Lads from Scotland Conned the Music Industry, with a screenplay by Elaine Gracie and Archie Thomson. McAvoy, who also takes a small on-screen role, has spoken publicly about his own experience of being asked to tone down his Scottish accent in the film industry — lending the project a personal dimension that critics say gives it its sharpest edge.

Bottomley’s growing profile

The Bradford-born actor is no stranger to demanding roles. He earned a BIFA nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his turn as the morally complex Paddy in Molly Manning Walker’s acclaimed coming-of-age drama How to Have Sex (2023), and received a Special Mention at the 20th Rome Film Festival in October 2025 for his performance in this film, according to Grokipedia.

In a separate profile for Empire, Bottomley reflected on the difference between the two roles. “With How to Have Sex, the confidence came from an insecure place — overcompensating,” he said. “Whereas with Billy, it’s pure joy and love and being completely comfortable with who he is.”

California Schemin’ is in UK cinemas now, distributed by StudioCanal. The film also stars Lucy Halliday, Rebekah Murrell, and Séamus McLean Ross.