- Born
- Birth nameScott Andrew Caan
- Nickname
- Scotty
- Height1.65 m
- Scott Caan is the son of tough guy actor James Caan. While it is obvious that he admires tough method actors like Marlon Brando and Sean Penn, Scott also has a strong egalitarian streak, evidenced by his reasoning for baring his body in films. He is quoted as saying that originally only the women in the scene were to be nude, but that he felt it really sexist, so he stripped too.
Scott was born on August 23, 1976 in Los Angeles, California. He spent his childhood being shuttled between his parents' homes. His mom is actress and model Sheila Ryan; the Caans divorced when Scott was a year old. He has an older half-sister, Tara, and three younger half-brothers: Alexander, Jacob, and James. His paternal grandparents were German Jewish immigrants.
Self-described as a bad kid who was always getting into trouble, Scott initially steered clear of acting, opting to play sports instead. Scott benefited from his father's hands-on approach to child rearing; the elder Caan reportedly took a five-year hiatus to coach all of his son's little league teams. He also pursued his love of hip-hop by forming a group with his friend The Alchemist; as The Whooliganz, the duo made inroads on the music scene and signed an ll-fated contract with Tommy Boy Records.
It did not take long for Scott to appear in front of the camera; in 1995, he took roles in a couple independent films, Aaron Gillespie Will Make You a Star (1996) and La haine au coeur (1995). Critical of his performances, Scott enrolled at Playhouse West in Los Angeles to study acting. Roles in more indies followed, including Bongwater (1998) and Gregg Araki's Nowhere (1997).
His first major film was also a hit; he had a supporting role in Ennemi d'État (1998) for director Tony Scott. He then appeared (in the buff) in American Boys (1999) as a wisecracking receiver. By now, Scott had built a reliable reputation for playing strong-minded characters with a sense of humor, exemplified by his work in movies such a Les initiés (2000), Ready to Rumble (2000), and his second hit picture, 60 secondes chrono (2000).
Scott's star rose with a fun supporting turn in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (2001) remake. At this time he had more indie turns in the films American Outlaws (2001), Novocaine (2001), and Sonny (2002) - Nicolas Cage's directorial debut starring James Franco. Scott followed up with his own directorial outing, Dallas 362 (2003). Scott reprised his role as Turk Malloy in Ocean's Twelve (2004), then took a supporting roles in two very different pictures: the sexy, ocean-bound thriller Bleu d'enfer (2005) and in Nicole Holofcener's indie comedy, Friends with Money (2006). 2006 marked Caan's return to the director¹s chair, with Le meilleur ami de l'homme (2006), and soon was back for Ocean's 13 (2007).
Over the past few years, Scott made memorable appearances as a recurring character on Entourage (2004). He has a starring role in the remake of the TV series Hawaii 5-0 (2010).
Scott has also established himself as a photographer, having been mentored in the medium by cinematographer Phil Parmet. In 2009, he published his book, Scott Caan Photographs, Vol. 1.- IMDb mini biography by: Kelley Ward kward@elpn.com
- ChildrenJosie James Caan
- Parents
- RelativesTara(Half Sibling)Alexander(Half Sibling)Jacob(Half Sibling)James(Half Sibling)
- Short stature
- Arrogant, volatile and cocky characters
- Blond hair he always wears slicked back
- Scott is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
- Son of actor James Caan.
- First child, daughter Josie James Caan born on July 9, 2014. Scott's girlfriend Kacy Byxbee is the baby's mother.
- Attended Beverly Hills High School at the same time as Angelina Jolie, whom he later appeared alongside in 60 secondes chrono (2000).
- Is one day older than his Hawaii Five-0 co-star Alex O'Laughlin, who was born on August 24th 1976.
- [on acting in the moment] I think all the greats really did that. If you watch Brando, if you watch McQueen, every scene you could see that they were doing something and that's why it seemed so human and so real as opposed to actors trying to find an emotion or play that emotion when the cameras are up and the lights are on it's hard to settle in and have a real moment. I think the only real way to do it is to have an objective for what you're doing in the scene.
- When I was a kid, I was always an athlete. I played a lot of sports. I played football, basketball, baseball and soccer. My dad was super into athletics, so that's what I did as a kid. I played sports. When I was 11 or 12, I stopped wanting to play football, basketball and baseball and I started smoking weed and hanging out with the 'bad kids'. I wanted to do anything that was rebellious. My old man hated skateboarding and surfing. He was a team sports player. The individuality of it is what drew me to skating and surfing. It was a 'Fuck you!' at the time. I know that skateboarding and surfing have been around a long time, but it wasn't like it is now. Surfing now is like a high school sport. Everyone surfs and everyone skateboards. Back then, if you skated, you were definitely one of the bad kids. If you surfed, you were a stoner, so you were one of the bad kids. At the time, I wanted to be like that. I wanted to be rebellious. I didn't want to fit in. I wanted to be a punk. When we'd go off and skate or surf, we were doing our own thing. There was nobody standing over our backs, watching us. There was no one judging us. It was just about one-upping each other all the time.
- My dad didn't work on a lot on movies when I was growing up. He stopped working for fifteen years. From the time I was five until I was fifteen, I didn't know who he was as an actor. He was just my dad. He wasn't off on movie sets when I was a kid. He hung out with me. He was also a rebellious guy. His whole life had a lot of ups and downs. To answer your question, yeah, he was the shit; but to me, he was just my dad. I didn't know him as James Caan, the big movie actor. As a kid, I never got to see any of his movies because they were all rated R. I didn't see The Godfather until I was 11 years old. When they shot him, I was like, 'This sucks.' It was fucked up. It was weird. I turned it off. It bummed me out. Now I look back and watch his movies and I'm like, 'Damn. He was the shit.'
- My old man was very strict about if you were going to do something, be good at it. Be the best at it or don't do it. Anyone can work hard and have God-given talent, but it's a shame when people have it and don't use it. You have to use all aspects of it. You have to be good at it and work harder than the next man. He always instilled that in me. Even when I was a kid, he'd say, 'If you're going to do something, do it right, do it hard and be passionate about it. Do it good or don't do it all, because there is always someone else that wants to play harder than you.'
- The reason I started writing movies was because I kept getting parts that I just kind of stepped into. I didn't have to do a lot of work and I ended up getting sort of bored. When I first started acting, all I did was work on plays and spend a lot of hours in the theater. I was immersing myself in what I was doing. I wanted to be the best at it. I was like, 'I'm going to do this and be the best actor in the world.' Then I got into the movie business and maybe once every three years, I'd get a part that I could actually sink my teeth into. The reason I started writing was because I didn't always get those parts. I figured I could write myself plays and perform things that I felt strongly about. That set me off on writing and directing. I ended up thinking, 'I can do this too.' I got really passionate about writing and directing. And now that I'm in my early 30s, I'm getting parts that I can really sink my teeth into it. Now I can go back to what really got me into acting, when it was something that I was super passionate about.
- Hawaii 5-0 (2011) - $200,000 per episode (season 8)
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