SOA: Tommy Flanagan’s ‘Glasgow Smile’ Isn’t The Work Of The Makeup Department – Looper

Tommy Flanagan, whose credits stretch back to the early ’90s and whose not-too-shabby Hollywood debut was in a mildly successful flick called “Braveheart,” has always been easy to spot on a crowded screen thanks to his trademark Glasgow Smile. He went into detail explaining its origin story on a decidedly NSFW interview on Michael Rosenbaum’s “Inside Of You” podcast.

“I went to a knife fight without a knife,” Flanagan explained, “and I wound up looking like this, and they put holes in me.” What a hoot.

Flanagan went on, explaining that he had been DJing at a Glasgow club when a group of nogoodniks and ne’er-do-wells (our words, not his) approached him, claiming to have killed his brother. Flanagan took umbrage and a Heineken bottle and met them in the alley, where they proceeded to stick knives in him.

According to his recollection, when he got out of the hospital, Flanagan was convinced by a friend to join the comparatively stab-free world of theater, a decision that would eventually see him not just in both “Smokin’ Aces” movies, but also making an appearance in “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.” And that’s what you call turning a Glasgow Frown upside down.