Above: Iain De Caestecker shot by Lauren Stocker for HERO 12: Darkness Falls

Scottish actor Iain De Caestecker heads up the latest edition of our endorsed series in which we share the film recommendations of actors featured in Issue 12.

De Caestecker rose to mainstream consciousness as a super-villain fighting secret agent in Marvel’s blockbuster spy series Agents of SHIELD, now in its second season. But it was working with Ryan Gosling on his recent directorial debut, Lost River, that really marked the 26-year-old as a sound talent worth following. “They’re a struggling family in this disintegrating town called Lost River, which probably was once quite an idyllic American town, full of the American Dream, and now it’s not, they’re hanging on to everything they’ve got,”explains de Caestecker of the film, which stars Christina Hendricks as the actor’s mother. “My character is a young guy who wants to escape, who thinks that if they just get away there must be something more.”

Here, De Caestecker looks to Scottish director Lynne Ramsey’s 2011 film We Need To Talk About Kevin, starring Tilda Swinton and John C Reilly as parents struggling with the reality of parenthood as their son develops from a disconnected child (Jasper Newell) into a disturbed young man (a brilliantly cast Ezra Miller). De Caestecker’s soft spot for urban horror comes into play with his choice – in our Issue 12 interview, he remembers the shoddily shot home horror videos he made as a kid. Everyone’s got one…

Iain De Caestecker on We Need To Talk About Kevin

“I first watched the film when it came out and watched it for a second time a couple of weeks ago,” says De Caestecker of his pick. “Lynne Ramsey is Scottish which is great. She’s pretty incredible, and I think she handles the subjects she deals with in her films with a very honest and unapologetic style and from what I’m aware of she’s very serious about never compromising that. The subject matter is also important and because it is dealt with in a straight, candid way it is all the more impactful and absorbing.

It’s very psychological, with an element of true horror. It has a brilliant narrative I think and although it’s a very dark story it has moments of black comedy. The cast all round are brilliant, especially Tilda Swinton (who is always mesmerising to me) and how she evolves the character through the switching of the timeline of the film.”