The film industry has a new piece of eye candy and his name is Scott Deckert.
The actor can be seen as the noisy neighbor “Ziggy” in Sony Pictures’ new film Venom, but will quickly become a household name sooner rather than later. Whether its television, film or music – the triple threat is showing no signs of slowing down (hinting at a couple of secret projects in the works!).
On the cusp of breaking October box office records, the Venom actor took a few minutes before the movie was released to share stories from on and off set.
Keep reading for the full interview and don’t forget to catch Venom in a theater near you.
Celeb Secrets: Tell us about VENOM! What’s it about?
Scott Deckert: “So the movie is Venom – Sony/Marvel with Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams and we had the premiere on Monday so I got to see the movie and it was everything I hoped for. I mean I think it’s kind of what fans are really hoping for in terms of one side of the story, not exactly the Spiderman one, but you kind of get to see the creation of how Eddie Brock really comes into contact with the symbiote and becomes Venom.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl-xoKfgVup/?taken-by=scott_deckerthttp://
Celeb Secrets: What character do you play?
Scott Deckert: “I play Ziggy. Ziggy is Eddie Brock’s neighbor and I’m kind of the antagonist. It’s pretty funny because when I found out I got the role, I was like ‘wait a minute I’m going to be playing a bully to Tom Hardy?!’ I love movies like Warrior and obviously with his role as Bane in Batman and he’s so big and looks huge, I’m like ‘how is this going to work?’ They just make him look so big because I’m a good amount taller than him so it worked out well. But I was like, come on, I’m not going to be the bully to Tom Hardy!”
Celeb Secrets: That’s crazy! Bane is like one of the scariest characters ever and still haunts our nightmares.
Scott Deckert: “I know, seriously! It’s crazy because I worked with Ruben the director before and he put me on in the very beginning on the first day of principal photography so I shot the first week. And Ruben was like ‘it would be good to just have someone who I know and we can kind of start this thing together.’ So I was really part of the beginning of Tom Hardy finding Venom, finding the character so it was really cool because we were playing off each other so much. I was shocked we had so much freedom as actors to explore and have just an awesome time shooting this thing and kind of coming up with different things. It was a very collaborative process. But it was really cool because Hardy would, like the very first time someone sees him turning into Venom is me and he’s banging on my door asking me to be quiet, I’m always annoying him with my loud music and he comes in and is like ‘man, can you turn it down, you’re really keeping me up;’ and I see him and he’s doing all this stuff when he starts turning into Venom and it was so cool because just between takes he’s like ‘hey, man, like how does that feel? Does it feel good or is it weird?’ and I was like ‘no man, to be honest you just scared the sh*t out of him. It was really good man!'”
Celeb Secrets: Did you change the way or process you prepared for this role?
Scott Deckert: “Well, actually this was a 3-month process of me getting this role and I didn’t even have to audition for which is a blessing as an actor. It means your career is growing. But I found out I got it and I was on a plane the next day and this project was so secretive even with casting, but you know they told me everything they could. So I was just on the plane prepping, I just had so much limited knowledge about what I was getting into to so I was just trying to figure out what I could do to be prepared because I personally like to prepare a whole lot for roles. So I got there and luckily I had 2 days before where I did hair and makeup and wardrobe and I got to talk with the director a lot. Even on the first day of filming he didn’t know if he wanted me to play it more hippy, comedic or more metal head so literally we just got to set and just started going and we did a couple takes of one thing and then we tried another way and we did some raunchier takes and then we cleaned it up a little. So we really had a lot of room to play and really have fun. And working with someone like Tom makes it so easy.”
Celeb Secrets: Sounds like a lot creative freedom which can be good, but scary.
Scott Deckert: “Yeah, but I was lucky enough to work on the show Workaholics and that gave me so much experience with improve and being able to create your own character and do your own thing. And the more my career grows, the more I see that people look at that as an attribute. Even on large projects that’s the reason I’m brought in.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnZEX_ojPtF/?taken-by=scott_deckert
Celeb Secrets: You’ve worked in TV and film – do you have a preference?
Scott Deckert: “Honestly, I just love acting in general. I love the opportunity to become someone totally different, but if I were to pick a dream career it would of course be film and movies. Just being able to have the opportunity to really just sink into something and become something totally different. Whereas in television it’s quicker and you have less time for prep and all that. So for me, movies are a dream.”
Celeb Secrets: How did you get into acting? When did you know it was the thing for you?
Scott Deckert: “I acted as a child in plays and stuff when I was a kid but that was more kind of just for fun figuring out what I wanted to do with my parents putting me in all different kinds of things and then I got more into sports. In high school it was kind of like pick theater or sports and I ended up picking sports and I ended up getting scouted for a tennis college scholarship. But in college I started getting back into college films and short films and I also do music as well. I was in a band back in college and then my band broke up. I literally hung up the phone and the person in the room with me said “you’re going to California.” I said “are you coming with me?” and she was like “yup!” So we left like 2 days later and then I got out here and I just started taking classes because I had heard from people who it doesn’t really matter what you’ve done somewhere else unless it’s like New York but you need to engulf yourself into the LA acting life. So I started taking that to heart and training like crazy and focusing and learning the business side of things and kind of hustling and just being my own businessman and it’s paid off.
It’s funny because you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. I just had this feeling that it’s what I’m supposed to do and I was made to do this and I literally didn’t know a single person out here and I said “I’m just packing up and going.” And then you get here and it’s a little scary but I got lucky I ended up living with a group of amazing people who at this point it’s kind of crazy how I was with them when we’ve all grown our careers and they’re household names now. Looking back on it, it’s like that was my LA story you know what I mean. I didn’t know that kind of thing happened.
It just makes sense how they say you attract the people who are similar to you and it was very good because we can feed off from each other and learn from each other and see what works and what didn’t work and how you get to certain places and all of us had the drive and perseverance. You see people drop like flies in this city and I can say barely anybody that I started out with here has quit and a lot of them are very successful.”
Celeb Secrets: Any upcoming projects you’re excited about?
Scott Deckert: “I have a couple of projects that I’ve been working on, but I’m not allowed to say what they are. But I can say I’ve been shooting quite a bit in Atlanta on a show that is literally a bucket list show for me. And I’ve never been more excited than with Venom when I booked it. And then I’m also working on another show here in Los Angeles for a couple of episodes of that. I’ve also been in the studio a bunch – acting has kind of brought music back into my life as acting has gotten busier I pushed music aside. Now that things are at a point that they are with my acting career, I’m getting approached by producers which has been amazing. So now I’m working with a producer named Taylor Sparks who produced like Pharrell and Azealia Banks and some amazing artists and we have our first single dropping on October 19th called “Everything About You.'”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo1x5EqDxNQ/?taken-by=scott_deckert
Celeb Secrets: Bucket list show? We’re going to google shows that film in Atlanta…
Scott Deckert: “One thing I can say is I look completely different because I have long hair, so they brought me in and even the hair and makeup people were saying “how did they see this from who you are?” because they wig me and I look totally different. And I said I have no idea and they said well that’s a good thing because it never happens, so they must have seen something in it.”