Actor and producer John “Scoot” McNairy visited Shelton School October 28 to speak with middle and high school students during a special visit to his hometown Dallas. McNairy, who attended Shelton, struck an immediate chord with students when he related with them his experiences of being dyslexic. Film students also enjoyed interviewing McNairy and filming him for a school project during Shelton’s 40th anniversary.
Describing himself as “highly dyslexic,” McNairy recounts that his being a visual learner drew him to films for that very reason.
McNairy moved from Texas to California to go to film school. He dropped out after a year and became involved with film production, including carpentry and sets. He next found work as a movie extra and did television commercials that eventually landed him roles in movies. In 2009 his film In Search of a Midnight Kiss, which he both acted in and produced, received the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirits Awards. The award honored the best feature made for under $500,000. McNairy since was nominated for Best Actor in Monsters at the 2010 British Independent Film Awards. He shared a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award with fellow actors from the ensemble of Ben Affleck’s Argo, voted as Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. He was again a SAG Award nominee with actors from Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, an Academy Award winner for Best Picture. McNairy was also selected as one of Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch.
McNairy currently stars in the AMC series Halt and Catch Fire and has made guest appearances on CSI, How I Met Your Mother, Bones and Six Feet Under. He was recently seen in Gone Girl. He’ll soon be seen in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Sleepless Night and War Machine. His film Our Brand Is Crisis opened this week.
McNairy has a brother, cousins and a niece who have attended Shelton, so his visit was a natural homecoming event.
McNairy told students to “Think differently. Take a risk. Use your dyslexia as a gift. Having dyslexia, you’ll have to work hard all of the time. If you mix that with passion, it will serve you well.”
Says Shelton film instructor Cliff Samuelson, “Our students really identify with Scoot. They know he too faced struggles, especially with reading, but he had courage and was always okay with trying something creative and different. Since Scoot’s school days here, we provide many more opportunities for students interested in theater and film. It’s great for our students to see success in action in someone who has been in their footsteps, and it’s great for Scoot to see some of our talented students who will pursue a similar career.”
McNairy also made an appearance at the International Dyslexia Association’s (IDA) conference in Dallas, where he received IDA’s Pinnacle Award for achievement. His visit to Shelton and to the IDA event coincided with October, which is Dyslexia Awareness Month.