Scotland on Screen: Robert Aramayo on I Swear

Anyone who thinks acting is a doddle should meet Robert Aramayo. This talented 32-year-old from Hull takes his craft extremely seriously. Deep research, immersion and specificity are key to his performances, which range from treading the boards as Alex, the lead hooligan in A Clockwork Orange, while he studied at New York performing arts school Juilliard, to portraying a young Ned Stark in Game of Thrones, to donning elf ears to play Elrond in Lord of the Rings prequel The Rings of Power. However, it’s his latest role in I Swear that he calls the “​​biggest challenge of my life.” 

Directed by British film veteran Kirk Jones (Waking Ned, Nanny McPhee), I Swear is a funny, moving and deeply empathetic biopic telling the story of John Davidson, a warm, kind-hearted man from Galashiels with Tourette syndrome, a neurological condition that causes him to involuntarily come out with the kind of creative epithets that would make Malcolm Tucker blush.

Aramayo plays John as an adult as he tries to build a life for himself around his uncontrollable tics (as well as epic, inappropriate swearing, his tics also manifest as barking noises and violent, full-body convulsions), while young newcomer Scott Ellis Watson is equally impressive as John at 13 years old, the age he was when his tics first emerged, resulting in him being bullied at school and misunderstood at home. “What was exciting about the project was I felt from the word go that Kirk was quite collaborative,” Aramayo says of first reading the script, “and maybe there would be space for me to really get in there; really work on it with him.” 

He was initially unaware of John’s incredible journey. The Scot came to prominence at 15 when he was the subject of the acclaimed 1989 BBC documentary John’s Not Mad, which gave many people in the UK their first education in Tourette syndrome. Three decades later, Queen Elizabeth II gave John an MBE for his efforts in educating people about the condition. “I was thankful that I could start afresh, to be honest,” says Aramayo, “and start building the character from the script, which is my job. And from there do the work.” 

This work was extensive. It began with a YouTube dive (he watched John’s Not Mad and sundry other Tourette's documentaries), then lots of reading and meeting people through Tourette Scotland, to finally a period living in Galashiels. “I spent a couple of months there just hanging out with John, watching the football with him, going on walks with him, going to the community centre with him, having meals, and just being in Galashiels and that surrounding area; it's very specific, Galashiels.”

Aramayo’s been doing this level of prep since he first graduated from Juilliard and got a small part as a gang member in Tom Ford’s 2016 film Nocturnal Animals. “The character was from Jasper in Texas, and I was like, ‘How the hell am I gonna play a guy from Jasper, Texas?’” Aramayo’s solution? He became a guy from Jasper, Texas! “Yeah, I just decided to move there, and I was lucky enough in that moment to be able to prepare in that way. And ever since then, I've realised that [a person] is influenced so much by where they grew up, the landscape, the accents, the sounds surrounding them. So it's important to saturate yourself in a place if you can.”

Having heard this level of commitment, it comes as no surprise when Aramayo tells me one of his favourite working experiences so far was on the set of Mindhunter, where he was directed by reportedly the most exacting person in the film business: David Fincher. “He's unbelievable,” says Aramayo of the famously fastidious filmmaker. “The meticulous nature of his directing is just breathtaking. One of the things that I believe in acting is asking the question, ‘How specific can you be?’ And I think that's part of the way David looks at his work as well. He's so specific, he's so meticulous, and he's really going after something. So if I could work with him again, that would be my absolute dream.”

On the set of I Swear, he found several other actors who like to lock into their roles. Take Shirley Henderson, who plays John’s uptight mother (“Shirley is quite immersive in the way that she works, which I really enjoyed”). Or Maxine Peake, who plays Dottie, a mental health nurse who takes John under her wing (“Maxine was just really in the trenches with me”). Less keen on going method, though, was Peter Mullan, who plays John's salt-of-the-earth boss. “Oh, Peter doesn’t need to get immersed. Peter could be having a conversation with you about what he had for breakfast as they're saying 'action' and then snap into [the scene]. It's an amazing skill of Peter's.”

Despite being deep in prep ahead of his return to Middle Earth for the third season of The Rings of Power, Aramayo is doing lots of press and appearances to promote I Swear. His passion for the project shines through. “I really want people to see this film, and whether they love or hate it, hopefully they walk away understanding a bit more about Tourette’s, and then they go and talk to somebody about Tourette's. Whatever the response is, I just hope it helps some to make it a larger conversation.”

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Film (selected): I Swear (2025), Palestine 36 (2025), Lilies Not for Me (2024), The King's Man (2021), Antebellum (2020), Galveston (2018), Nocturnal Animals (2016)
TV (selected): The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022-present), Behind Her Eyes (2021), Mindhunter (2019), Game of Thrones (2016–2017)
I Swear is released 10 Oct by StudioCanal