When actor Douglas Henshall realised he was about to be thrust into the media glare, he called a Scotsman he knew would understand.
His friend Ewan McGregor listened to him explain how frightening it was to suddenly be the focus of press attention. With controversial Channel 4 series Psychos and two films - This Year's Love and If Only - in the bag, Douglas was being unleashed on theGreat British public. And he didn't mind admitting he was terrified.
"Douglas called me up and said: `All these interviews are a bit scary,'" said Star Wars actor Ewan, laughing. "And I said: `Yes, yes they are, aren't they?'"
Ewan's words must be echoing in Douglas's mind as he faces a hail of publicity about Psychos, the powerful series which started last week and is set in a Glasgow psychiatric hospital. The 32- year-old actor plays Dr Danny Nash, a psychiatrist suffering from manic depression, who gradually loses control of his illness.
The Celtic-supporting doctor's unorthodox views on medicine bring him into conflict with the establishment - and fellow psychiatrist Dr Kate Millar, with whom he falls in love.
The hype about Psychos began last November when news of the show broke and mental health charity Mind objected to its rather non- pc title.
Channel 4 argued the word "psychos" referred to the doctors, not the patients, but the title had done the trick, throwing the spotlight on the show and its stars.
Sitting in a Glasgow hotel, Douglas is adamant viewers must make up their own minds about the show.
"I don't think we need to justify the programme," he says. "If people get offended, fair enough."
Douglas is passionate about Danny, the character who leapt off the page at him when he was given a script for Psychos.
"I got sent a script for the first episode and I hadn't read anything like it before," he says. "I liked the character - his wit and his compassion." The actor pauses pointedly, before adding: "And the fact he doesn't suffer fools gladly."
If there is anything the actor has in common with Danny, it is a strong sense of what he sees as right and wrong. As far as journalists are concerned, it is right to ask him about his career and wrong to ask him anything remotely personal.
The actor is fiercely protective of his personal life and although he was happy to show off his new girlfriend, model Sophie Dahl, at the recent Glasgow premiere of his movie Orphans, Douglas refuses to speak publicly about her. "There is someone in my life, tentatively," he says, adding coyly: "Put two and two together."
The couple met while recording Romeo and Juliet in a production to be aired on Radio 3 this summer. News of their relationship broke days after Sophie spoke of her affection for model Hugh Dalton in Hello! magazine. But while Douglas explains that his private life is just that, his face lights up when Sophie's name is mentioned. There is much more to this man than meets the eye, but he is not saying what.
For now, at least, he lives in a Brixton flat by himself. He has got used to his independence after a failed marriage in his 20s. "You can get used to anything," he says.
But he admits he would like to settle down and start a family.
"I wouldn't like to live the rest of my life alone," he says. "Yes, I'd like kids, but I'll just have to see what happens."
The actor was raised in Barrhead, Renfrewshire, by his mother, a nurse, and salesman father. After failing to get into journalism or art college, he decided to go to acting school and left home at 18 to go to Mountview drama college in London.
"My parents were very supportive and I'm glad of that because I didn't have to make a choice of going my own way," he says. "I was encouraged to think for myself anyway."
After graduating, Douglas spent fruitless months writing letters asking for acting work. David Hayman, then artistic director at Glasgow's 7:84 theatre company, answered Douglas's prayers with a job offer and the young actor spent more than two years with the group. Around that time, he became friends with Peter Mullan, the actor turned director who more recently gave Douglas a starring role in his surprise hit movie Orphans.
It looked like Douglas was really going places in 1993 when he starred with the then unknown Ewan McGregor in Dennis Potter's television drama Lipstick On Your Collar. Douglas was eventually to play the role of best man at Ewan's wedding.
Douglas took Ewan under his wing while filming Lipstick - the drama was Ewan's first TV role and he was petrified. "He looked after me and stood by me," says Ewan. "He was a wee icon to me."
Now the star who has conquered Hollywood is watching his buddy get his moment of glory, but Ewan is not surprised to see Douglas looking uncomfortable in the spotlight.
The Psychos star will reveal little more about his passions in life than his love of tennis and chess - two obsessions he developed in childhood.
"I played tennis morning, noon and night from the age of 10 to about 17," he says, his blue eyes glittering.
"Chess is my other passion. I would get to the stage I was wandering around the living room at 3am, cursing this computer game. If you play a good game against a human being you get a reaction, but if you play against a machine, you get a beep."
Unlike his Psychos character, Douglas is a sworn St Mirren fan and regrets not being able to spend as much time on the terraces supporting his team as he once did.
Family is another aspect of his life he feels strongly about and he still comes back to visit his father and sisters 14 years after leaving Scotland.
"I come home when I can and still go to the local pub and meet some of the same faces I always did," he says.
Douglas's mother died two and a half years ago, but again Douglas refuses to talk about what is obviously one of his most painful experiences. He admits he found filming black comedy Orphans in Glasgow tough going - he played one of four adult siblings grieving for their dead mother. But he learned to get on with the job.
"Part of me that doesn't want to talk about my mother's death because it means too much to me," he says. "But when you are doing a job, you have to separate what's real and what you are playing. Orphans wasn't about me, it was about a character I was playing in different circumstances."
Part of Douglas's charm is his honesty. He refused point blank to be dressed by a stylist for the Saturday magazine shoot, insisting he would prefer to wear his own clothes.
He had only recently been cajoled into a designer outfit and slicked back hairstyle for a women's glossy magazine - and he was almost unrecognisable in the resulting photographs.
The actor scoffs at the suggestion he is fast becoming a sex symbol after his romantic role in This Year's Love and his powerful portrayal of the maverick Danny.
More important to him is the fact that his high-profile roles should put him where he wants to be - in work.
Since filming Psychos six months ago, he has been unemployed, but that is probably more to do with Douglas's tendency to be choosy about scripts than the lack of opportunity. He admits one film role he was desperate to play was offered to another actor, but he is philosophical and feels confident the right script will come along soon.
Meanwhile, he is committed to starring in another series of Psychos if Channel 4 recommissions it. And judging by the initial response to the high- octane drama, that's only a matter of time.
For now, time is something Douglas has while he reads a pile of scripts. When the right one comes along, he will know it and, no doubt, so will we.
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