Scoot McNairy on New Film Blood for Dust, Kit Harington, and His Busy 2024

The moment you see a recognizable face like Scoot McNairy‘s, your cinephile radar lights up. “Oh yeah! That guy! Love him,” you might find yourself saying. McNairy is everywhere these days, often in standout supporting performances. You’ve seen him on both the big and small screen, in commercial projects and smaller efforts: Love Life on Max, A Quiet Place Part II, Killing Them Softly. He even voices King Lizard on Prime Video’s beloved animated series Invincible.

He usually shines in the supporting cast, but when he’s allowed to lead (as in the brilliant improv sci-fi film Monsters and the AMC series Halt and Catch Fire), he’s electric. McNairy holds the screen well in the new film, Blood for Dust, alongside other acclaimed performers like Kit Harington, Josh Lucas, and Stephen Dorff. We recently caught up with McNairy to learn more about his gritty new feature from director Rod Blackhurst about a drug deal gone wrong, his love for Paul Thomas Anderson and his many other 2024 projects in the works.

An Everyman in ‘Breaking Bad Meets Fargo’

The marketing vehicle behind Blood for Dust has dubbed the film as a sort of “Breaking Bad meets Fargo.” Interestingly, McNairy played a standout supporting character in season three of Fargo on FX. “I feel like Breaking Bad and Fargo are standalone, incredible things. So even to be put into the same category as those is like a really nice blessing,” he told us.

Without spilling too much about the twisty plot of Blood for Dust, we’ll say that McNairy nails the sort of ‘average person’ protagonist role of Cliff, a shady traveling salesman who gets all tangled up in a criminal operation he wasn’t exactly prepared for. “Cliff was such a fish out of water. He was an everyman character, which I feel like I’ve kind of played before, but not an everyman character that’s so out of his element,” said McNairy, adding:

So there was a certain sense of shock, I felt, that Cliff was in a lot of the time, that he was trying to play off and be comfortable. And I think that led to a lot of stillness in the character of Cliff, of him pretending to know what he’s doing while not knowing at all what he’s doing.

Fun with Kit Harington and Playing The Penguin

And all this chaos surrounding the character of Cliff is bolstered by his wildcard partner-in-crime in the film: Ricky, played to perfection by the wonderful Kit Harington. “I was a big fan of his from Game of Thrones, and he was just so lovely to be around and such a lovely person to work with,” McNairy told MovieWeb. “We had a lot of fun working on this one together, a lot of cutting up.”

McNairy continued to share about the other acclaimed co-stars who happily joined this new project of his:

”
Stephen Dorff, it was awesome for him to come in and do those couple of scenes. I’d worked with him on
True Detective

, and [director] Rod lives near very close to him. So I think in the midst of us talking, we were like, ‘Well, do you think Stephen would come and play one of these things?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And Ethan Suplee is somebody I’ve known for a long time, big fan. He has such a great career. Same with Josh Lucas.
So yeah, it was really nice to see these guys come and support the film that I’m leading
.”

Looking ahead, since McNairy has indeed mastered the everyman role, we were curious if he was ever interested in the opposite — if there are any superhero characters he’s had his eye on for a potential future project. “The Penguin has always been something, but I think Colin Farrell is playing The Penguin in a show and doing a phenomenal job,” said McNairy about the beloved DC Comics villain. “I’ve had a lot of ideas about The Penguin for a really long time. So yeah, that would definitely be something I would be interested in diving into.”

Scoot McNairy Will Star in Speak No Evil with James McAvoy

And on the topic of future projects, McNairy has certainly kept busy with other films that will be released later this year, in addition to Blood for Dust. He will co-star in the upcoming Blumhouse film Speak No Evil, which is a remake of the acclaimed 2022 Danish film. Here’s what McNairy could tell us about it so far.

“I couldn’t be more excited. I had the opportunity to take a look at it, and it’s really well done. The pacing is incredible. It moves really fast, and it’s different than the original Danish film. James Watkins put together such an interesting film, and the cast was amazing,” said McNairy, who went on to praise co-star James McAvoy:

“James McAvoy was absolutely phenomenal in every take. I mean,
there’s so much stuff that he did that was amazing that didn’t make it into the cut
. He’s just a wonderful actor to watch on a day-to-day basis. So I really had a great time working with him.
And he’s incredibly talented and can be crazy on-screen
. He was just great. And the whole cast was wonderful. We had such a great time working together. We’re all in one place for one time.”

“I think the movie is really good,” said McNairy. “I think people are really gonna like it. It’s gonna take you for a ride, and the original was just as well done, different, but I’m really excited for people to see it.”

Coming Up: Nightbitch and Fairyland

Then there’s another buzzy film that’s in the can for Scoot McNairy and will be released down the line: Nightbitch. What a title! “Marielle Heller adapted the screenplay from a book of the same title, Nightbitch. It’s interesting, it’s completely different,” McNairy told us. “Amy Adams is phenomenal in it, and I had such a wonderful time working with her. It’s such a different film, but yet, so… It’s weird, grounded, but it’s not grounded. I’m really interested to see the audience’s response to it. I think people are really gonna like it. I loved it, I just laughed and thought it was funny and couldn’t be more truthful in this sort of world. So I think it’s December when that film comes out.”

And the list goes on. McNairy’s other recent feature, Fairyland, premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews. “Andrew Durham, the filmmaker, wrote the screenplay. I just thought he wrote an incredible, heartfelt script,” McNairy told MovieWen. “I think it’s a really important film, and it sheds a lot of light on the AIDS epidemic and also that time period in San Francisco… I learned a lot, just researching and working on this film… So for me, it was very educational. And at the end of it, I felt like this story was an incredibly important story to tell. So I was elated to just be a part of it.”

Given that McNairy has worked with a wide variety of renowned filmmakers and actors at this point, one has to wonder if there’s anyone left that he’s got his eye on. “Of course, I think everybody’s had their eye on Paul Thomas Anderson. And many have worked with him. I have not,” said McNairy, adding:

“He makes really great films, and he’s somebody I really want to work with. But, man, there’s a list, I promise you, there’s a whole slew of filmmakers that I’ve been really dying to work with and have been really lucky to even have the opportunity to met or even work with. So yeah, we’ll see. Onward and upward. I’m very, very grateful and lucky and happy to be working at all.”

On that note, from The Avenue, Blood for Dust is now playing in select theaters and on digital.