With his amazing shirts and bubbly, bright personality, it is no wonder John Scott is one of our most loved presenters on Paver TV. We thought it was high time we grabbed a cup of tea with him and picked his brain about everything fashion, celebrity and TV. Catch up on what he had to say here!
Let's start at the beginning! How long have you presented on Pavers TV?
A fair few years now! I used to do The John Scott Show in Liverpool with Daniel Harrison Freelance Producer and Director). I was doing that when Pavers moved from London to Liverpool because it was before we had our own studio here. Daniel asked me if I would do Pavers TV with Debbie and Tori and so I did for a couple of days a month.
What attracted you to Pavers TV?
To be honest I never really wanted to do shoes but I had such a good time and I had a really nice laugh with Debbie and the day used to fly past. I remember thinking “this is alright” as it didn’t feel like working, it was fun just talking about shoes and fashion which I do all the time anyway!
Do you have to do a lot of travelling with your job?
Yes I do. I work all over depending on which bit of my job I’m doing. My shopping tele jobs are here in York and Birmingham but I do my personal styling and that can be anywhere in the whole country. I host the Bridal Awards in Harrogate then I do other award ceremonies in London.
Tell me about your personal styling?
That’s my main job really. So someone who’s in a rut in their wardrobe would ring me up and we’d do what I call a ‘wardrobe invader’. We go to the person’s house, completely empty their wardrobe and they try everything on. We never throw anything away though. We put them all in a box and put them in the attic and if you haven’t opened that box in a year then you take it to a charity shop.
What was it that got you into presenting?
It was completely by accident to be honest. I used to do costumes for films. Firstly, I did it in theatres then I did it on the TV and then I started to do major Hollywood films. I actually even did the costumes for the James Bond films. That lead me to presenting actually because Lorraine Kelly had me in to discuss the Golden Eye costumes. We ended up doing a feature where we recreated the Bond look on a normal guy which was good fun. From that Richard and Judy asked me to come in and do a screen test for their shoe. It wasn’t until a year later when coincidently I was working on another Bond film, that they contacted me and asked me on the show. After that I ended up doing This Morning for 10 years.
What’s your career history?
I trained to be a teacher in Yorkshire but realised quickly that I didn’t want to be a teacher. I loved the kids but I hated the staffroom. I was teaching Drama and English and a friend of mine was at Wimbledon School of Art doing Costume Interpretation where you learn to design and make costumes for theatre and film. I decided to apply and when I completed my course I started working in a theatre making costumes for local productions. Then I slowly moved up the ranks and became a Costume Supervisor. Then I started working for a company called Twentieth Century Costumes who rented out and made costumes for film and TV. This was great as it took me to New York! I worked at their branch in Manhattan for just over a year then I came back and I got head hunted by ITV to do the costumes for Poirot. After this I did a few more TV series and a couple more films. The films started getting bigger and bigger too! I worked with Robin Williams and Angelina Jolie! I went from Interview with The Vampire to Tomorrow Never Dies to Golden Eye, The Worlds Not Enough, Four Weddings and A Funeral, Notting Hill, Tomb Raider, Rob Roy, Butcher Boy all these big films and then I got a reputation for being able to do costumes for a film that were logistically difficult. I couldn’t have staff and would have to use locals. For example, once we were based in an African game reserve, so there was literally nothing.
I only took a year’s contract with This Morning thinking I would go back to films, but I got offered to do Love Actually but I didn’t want to do it, I was happy doing what I was doing. So I never went back to films and stayed in TV.
Do you think you’ll ever go back to films?
No not anymore. For me I think I left when I was still good at what I did and was still being offered work. Also, the job now is very different. I used to be very hands on. wouldn’t physically dress them but I’d style them and on busy days we’d be making sure everything was alright but now the role of a Costume Supervisor is more sitting down at a computer with Excel spreadsheets and doing budgets and that’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to be hands on and creative. I can’t sit in an office. If I wanted to do that I’d have been a banker or something like that. I just can’t sit on location in an office. I just wouldn’t know how to do a spreadsheet anyway. So the jobs changed.
Who would you say is the best celebrity you’ve worked with?
It depends what you mean by best really because there’s been a few. I’ve worked with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant to name a few. A lot of them are nice and down to earth. Hugh Grant has got a reputation for being nasty. I mean he can be grumpy but who isn’t at 4am in the morning when you first come to work? People like Dame Judy Dench are professional, gorgeous and lovely. When you read in magazines about celebrities being ‘this’ and ‘that’ I think you have to take it with a pinch of salt. Usually they’ve been up since 3m and are stressed as anything, because this massive multi-million-pound film in relying on their performance to be successful. That would stress anyone out!
Which 3 celebrities that you’ve worked with would you want to work with again?
Daniel Craig. He’s sexy but he’s also lovely and very professional. Dame Judy Dench is just fabulous. There is nothing Diva-ish about Dame Judy Dench! After I did Hollywood films I started to style people like Bonnie Langford and other TV celebrities and the people who are good at their jobs are the easiest to style because they’re not divas. I’d sometimes style people for events as well, like red carpets or dinners. I liked styling Piers Brosnan because as soon as you say you’re working with Piers Brosnan, everyone sends their clothing to the hotel room and you can just try everything on in the room rather than go to the shops!
If there was somebody getting into presenting, what advice would you give them?
Be yourself. Because people watching the TV can see right through it. When I was on This Morning there was a health and fitness presenter who in real life was the loveliest girl and was natural and chatty but as soon as you put her in front of a camera she put on this facade and the viewers could tell immediately it wasn’t her. On shopping TV the people have to trust you so if they don’t trust you or they don’t think you’re being honest with them then that’s you done Emma Willis is a brilliant presenter because she’s natural and what you see is her and that’s why people like her work but there are lots of little jobs coming up all the time. People think because you’re on the TV you get paid an awful lot of money which isn’t true (unless you’re Philip Schofield or Holly Willoughby).
What programme would you love to present on?
I love learning about people and meeting people so my ideal presenting job would be like a Graham Norton show but maybe not as formal. I love shows like This Morning and Lorraine too. You know you’re going to do a serious story, cookery, fashion, a fun story, a celebrity story. Ok they’re different people every day so it’s not like you’re working in a job where you see the exact same people but I’d get bored easily. If you have a chat show it’s going to be different every time. I wouldn’t necessarily want to just to do celebrities because I think there are so many unsung heroes and interesting people who live in the real world. I’m just nosey I suppose. I’d like to think that I could ask the questions.
If you were to have a dinner party, who would you invite?
I'd want Princess Diana! I’d want people who were just going to have a really nice time, not get too drunk and embarrass themselves and just chat really. When Diana died I just cried for a whole day! I was working on a Bond film at the time and I thought it was really weird because we had the next day off then we worked the next day and everybody wore black arm bands and all the flags were at half-mast but the people in the hair and make-up that you’d think would be the softest ones were all like “so?” and people who worked in construction and lighting were grown men crying at work so it was incredible. I don’t know who else would be there. Daniel Craig would have to be there too. I wouldn’t just want celebrities though.
What would you say is the craziest request that an actor has had?
When we were at Pinewood they rented Tom Cruise and his family a house but he said he couldn’t go to a gym and he needed one, so he made them build a gym in the basement even though it was rented! He also requested black velvet corridors from his Winnebago to the different stages so nobody could see him.
What is your travel must have?
A car obviously and a list of all the local Starbucks on the route.
