"At the start of the century, a struggling Scottish rap duo decided to overhaul their image in extreme fashion: they began posing as two Americans from California, and managed to secure themselves a record deal with a label in London. Eventually the hoax was revealed, and one of them released a memoir about the charade. That wild story has now been adapted into a film, California Schemin', which marks the alternately confident and unsteady directorial debut of actor James McAvoy."
"McAvoy is a son of Scotland himself, and perhaps feels some kinship with rappers Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd, who found the cultural tastemakers of the south to be indifferent or even hostile to Scottish artists. Though McAvoy has fared just fine as an actor, Bain and Boyd who would come to be known as Silibil N' Brains had a much tougher go of it as rappers, an art form that has long been preoccupied with image and street cred."
Two friends from Dundee reinvented themselves as Californians to penetrate a London music scene that dismissed Scottish artists. They adopted accents and fabricated backstories, won a record deal, and faced the consequences when the hoax unraveled. The story tracks their close bond, Gavin’s escalating desperation, Billy’s ambivalence, and the strain the deception places on their friendship. Casting includes Seamus McLean Ross as Gavin, Samuel Bottomley as Billy, and Lucy Halliday as Mary. The narrative interrogates image, street credibility, regional prejudice, and the lengths some performers will go to pursue fame.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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