Scottish actor Ruaridh Mollica hopes fans embrace his accent in new Marvel role
Scottish actor Ruaridh Mollica says he’s hoping audiences will embrace his natural accent as he takes on a major new role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The 27-year-old plays Tommy Maximoff, the speedster son of Avengers Wanda Maximoff and Vision, in Disney+’s new miniseries VisionQuest — an eight-part series billed as the final chapter of a trilogy that began with WandaVision and continued through Agatha All Along.
Tommy is written as an 18-year-old who has recently aged out of foster care in London, carrying only fragments of memory from the parents he never really knew. Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland’s The Saturday Show, Mollica explained that keeping his own voice rather than adopting an American or English accent gave the character more depth. “I want the fans to like what I have done with the character and accept that I have a Scottish accent,” he said, adding that while it initially surprised some viewers, it let him “put my own spin on the character.”
From self-tape to screen test
Mollica joined the cast in October 2025 after what he called “the best day of my life.” He described submitting an audition tape with little expectation, only to be flown to New York for a screen test with star Paul Bettany and showrunner Terry Matalas five months later. The news arrived via a call from his American manager: “your life is about to change, kid.” Mollica recalled bursting into tears on the spot. “I bawled my eyes out, sat on a wall and it started raining in a prophetic fallacy kind of way.”
The cast also includes James Spader and Joe Locke, with whom Mollica previously shared a West End stage debut. Born in Italy to a Scottish mother and Italian father, Mollica grew up in Edinburgh and began acting as a child, appearing in BBC One’s Case Histories at age 12 and later as a background dancer in the Sunshine on Leith film adaptation. His other credits include the series Stonemouth — based on a novel by Iain Banks — and the film Tell It to the Bees, along with a Scottish Bafta-winning turn in the short film Too Rough during his university years.
Despite earning a computer science degree from Heriot-Watt University in 2021, Mollica chose performing over further study. “After my degree, I thought about doing a masters degree, but acting stole my heart,” he said. “I still cannot believe it.”
Learning from a Marvel veteran
Mollica admitted the pressure of landing the role triggered bouts of imposter syndrome, but said Paul Bettany mentored him through the process. “Paul is very experienced and really held my hand through the whole process so I thank him a lot for that,” he said, recalling advice Bettany gave about playing Vision: “when I played the Vision, I was playing all the truthful human emotion, I was just painted like a robot.” Now that the series has launched, Mollica hopes to prove Scottish talent can hold its own in a global franchise. “Scots are always the underdog but I want to show the world we are a nation of creatives and incredible actors,” he said, adding that Bettany’s parting wisdom stuck with him: “the best superpower is accepting who you are.”
Source: BBC News