The transition from stage to screen wasn’t easy for Jack Lowden. Having spent his youth performing in theatres, finding himself in front of a camera provoked a visceral reaction. ‘I hated it for years,’ he says, ‘and found it difficult to get my head around. I now know it’s because I’d spent so long on stage since I was a kid; it was as simple as the lack of an audience.’ Happily, Lowden has since grasped the small and large screen with both hands, delivering stand-out performances in Benediction, The Gold and Slow Horses to name but three.

This year, however, the Scottish Borders-born actor went back to his roots, in more ways than one. Not only did he take on a producer role for acclaimed film The Outrun (starring Lowden’s wife Saoirse Ronan), but he made his Edinburgh International Festival debut in The Fifth Step. Alongside Sean Gilder, Lowden brought David Ireland’s new play vividly to life and, for once, used his own accent. ‘I miss acting in my own accent; it’s one less thing to think about and you can delve a little bit deeper,’ he says. ‘And being involved in anything in Scotland is of the highest importance for me.’

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Main picture: Simon Murphy.