Trapped in an empty room with only a dying phone and his conscience, Scott William Winters delivers a performance that earned him Best Actor at AAIFF Americas’ 2025 on the 17th of August in Mexico City. Avid moviegoers may recognize him for his role as Clark in Good Will Hunting — the smug Harvard student quickly put in his place by Matt Damon’s Will during the now-iconic bar room scene — or Cyril O’Reily on the HBO drama series Oz.
Nearly thirty years later, Winters is still pursuing roles that challenge him in new ways, most recently in a 12-minute film directed and produced by Karen G. Ruiz. We had the chance to interview the actor, where he spoke fondly about his experience on set, his relationship of trust with the film’s director, and his experience-backed advice for young actors and creatives.
The New York-based actor was pleasantly surprised by his Best Actor win. Filmed in a single day, Karen G. Ruiz’s short unfolds entirely within an ominous white room, where Winters’ character—a professional sports coach—awakens trapped and disoriented.
Receiving cryptic phone calls from his kidnapper, he struggles to piece together what happened and how to escape, leaving him to reflect on his poor life decisions. The audience shares his disorientation: the setting is never identified on screen, and the outside world remains completely unseen.
Ruiz designed the film and chose this mysterious setting with deliberate simplicity. “I’m kind of a minimalist,” she said. “So let me just take a simple story, with a simple set design, one actor, and a short script to really focus on key details.”
Staged in a Chinatown basement in San Francisco, Ruiz’s minimalist approach to the film’s production put the spotlight on Winters’ performance. The barren set mirrored the character’s isolation and regret, giving him space to embody what he described as an imprisoning conscience. “I like the metaphor of someone being trapped in their conscience,” he said. The minimalist surroundings, Winters added, reinforced the film’s bleak atmosphere.
“The stark surrounding, it worked for the piece and the nihilism of the piece, so it was easy for me to work off of that.”
With no scene partner at the other end of the phone calls, Scott’s movements and line delivery carried extra weight. “It made the gravity of my choices a little heavier, because I was the only actor,” he explained, “normally, I like to put my attention on the other actor.” This solo acting experience became both the challenge and the strength of his performance.
“It’s like being at a café with close friends — they value you most when you’re truly present, not half distracted. In that acting moment, I was paying very close attention to my surroundings.
While Winters carried the acting in the film on his own, he credits much of his ease and confidence to his collaboration with Ruiz — a bond he says was essential to the film’s success and a lesson he will take with him for future projects.
Ruiz emphasized that trust was central to her approach on The Last Call. “In essence, I really didn’t direct him too much because he’s professional and I like his style,” she said, “I just gave him full trust; he had carte blanche to do whatever he wanted in terms of interpreting the character.”
Winters said trust guided his performance and made the set feel effortless. “I could tell she was relational,” he said, noting that quality is rare in Hollywood, where many directors “go through the motions and forget the point — play.” He also reflected on the business side of film and television, which he said often “cauterizes the joys of the artistic process.” His connection with director Karen G. Ruiz, by contrast, developed quickly.
“She picked me up at the airport, and we just launched into a conversation. It just kind of blossomed. If either of us had any walls of protection, those just dropped immediately.”
The trust between Winters and director Karen G. Ruiz gave him the confidence to perform in a minimalist, single-actor set, where every gesture carried weight. “When you don’t trust the person you’re collaborating with, why would you take a risk in your choices as a director or an actor?” he said. “And if you’re not going to take a risk, you’re not going to get the best product.”
At this point in his career, Winters remains committed to the same values and mindset that earned him Best Actor at AAIFF Americas’ 2025: taking risks, embracing challenging projects, and most importantly, continuing to tell meaningful stories.
Reflecting on his early theater days, he offers advice to aspiring actors: embrace every opportunity, no matter the scale. “I would tell younger actors to treat every project like it’s Apocalypse Now,” he said. “Have a standard of excellence, no matter how modest or grassroots the project is because at the end of the day, you want to feel good about your work. You want to be part of telling a good story.”
Written by Soraya Keïta
English
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