Actor Martin Compston has said he now gets recognised in the street in America – thanks to his starring role in sci-fi series The Rig, shot and produced in Edinburgh.
Compston, 40, shot to fame as a teenager in Ken Loach’s 2002 movie Sweet Sixteen, and became a household name starring as in cop drama Line of Duty.
One of the most recognisable faces on TV in the UK, he said he could still walk around in the US, where he lives, with relative anonymity before he appeared in The Rig.
The first season, set on an oil rig in the North Sea, became a global hit after it was released last year. And Season 2 of the supernatural thriller is set to premiere globally on Prime Video on Thursday.
Compston said: “It’s the power of Prime. The day the first season dropped it went out in 270 countries at the same time.
“You try and get your head around that, like some people didn’t know there were 270 countries. It’s a weird feeling to think that somebody in every one of them has watched it.
“It was always a novelty, me getting recognised in the street in America, when I’m walking around. As soon as this came out it started becoming a lot more frequent .
“On a global scale it probably is the biggest thing I’ve been involved in.”
The Rig was filmed at First Stage Studios in Edinburgh, with the first season set on an oil rig, the Kinloch Bravo, under the influence of supernatural forces.
Following the destruction of the rig by a tsunami, the second season sees the surviving crew transported to a new secret offshore facility called the Stac, in the Arctic Circle.
Despite the dramatic change of surroundings, filming once again took place entirely in the studio in Leith, with stunning special effects.
Compston, who plays the rig’s communications officer Fulmer Hamilton, said he was thrilled to be able to shoot such an ambitious series entirely in Scotland.
He said: “I grew up in an era when everybody would come up here, do their three weeks’ exteriors and then f*** off south to the studio.
“It’s so exciting that we can do it all here now and we can keep it here. And it’s not only Scottish stories that are being made here… That’s something to be really proud of.”
Meanwhile, Compston’s co-star Emily Hampshire has told how she had to cut on Irn-Bru — after Scots inundated her with the fizzy drink.
The Canadian actress, who shot to fame as Stevie Budd in hit US series Schitt’s Creek, became a fan of “Scotland’s other national drink” when she filmed the first season of The Rig in Edinburgh.
She was introduced to the soft drink by Compston and joked she loved it so much she was addicted and “smuggling some back” to Canada.
Asked if she’d been “back on the Irn-Bru” when shooting Season 2, she said: “Less so this time. I tried to cut down to be a little more healthy.
“After I said that I liked Irn-Bru for season one, so many people sent me it that I had to slow down.”
Hampshire, who returns as Rose, said filming was a very different experience second time around as the cast and crew did not have to wear masks.
She said: “We shot season one at pretty much the peak of Covid. For the second season, I remember barely recognising people because I had only ever seen half their faces.”
She added: “And being in Edinburgh with all these Scottish actors wearing masks, I didn’t understand anyone.”
