'I had to pinch myself' - Airdrie actor Cameron Fulton on appearing with the stars in new thriller The Rig

“I think all of us younger guys in the cast felt it,” he grins. “We kept looking at each other and going – there’s Martin Compston off Line of Duty, and Iain Glen from Game of Thrones, and Emily Hampshre from Schitt’s Creek - is this actually happening?

“It felt like a real moment.”

Cameron, who is from Airdrie, plays a young oil rig worker in the much-hyped supernatural thriller, which is due on screen soon. The first Amazon Prime series to be filmed entirely in Scotland, it follows the fortunes of the Kinloch Bravo crew who are suddenly cut off from all communications with the shore, by a mysterious force.

“I cannot wait for everyone to see it, I think the storyline will keep everyone guessing,” he says. “It was an amazing experience. We filmed it on shore, but the sets were so good, you’d think you were actually walking on to an oil rig. There were helicopters in there, water – it was sensational.”

This week, Glasgow audiences can catch Cameron – who will also be well-known to fans of River City as misguided, misunderstood bad boy Tyler Foulkes – in Oran Mor’s lunchtime theatre series A Play A Pie and A Pint.

He is starring in Infernal Serpent, Dave Gerow’s devilishly modern twist on an old story, which looks at why – and how – we protest. Cameron plays Adam, who moves into a new house with his partner Eve. The couple are snake rights activists, and by sheer coincidence – too much of a coincidence, perhaps – their neighbour Lucy is also in the same line of work.

“Lucy lights a fire in Adam, and starts infiltrating his life – chaos ensues,” he smiles. “It’s a really clever play, with some commentary on the political landscape we live in which will definitely get people talking, I think.

“It’s a real privilege to be back at Oran Mor, working with such a fantastic bunch of people – this is my fourth play here.” He jokes: “I played an activist in the last one too – not sure what kind of activist vibe I’m giving off…”

Cameron adds, more seriously: “I wouldn’t describe myself as an activist, but I would protest – I’ve been on a couple of marches. I think we’re all passionate about causes we believe in, and I’d like to think, like most people, that I would stand up for something I felt strongly about.”

It is quite a switch, from an eerie oil rig thriller, mingling with Compston, Glen and the like, to a lunchtime play in the heart of Glasgow’s west end, but it’s “the joy of the job”, says Cameron, adding that it is a job he never intended to do in the first place.

“I wanted to be a police officer,” he says. “I’d signed up to a cadet programme, left school after fourth year, and then the banks crashed and the whole thing was scrapped. So I went back to school, and took Higher drama because I thought it would be a bit of a skive.”

Persuaded by his drama teacher to audition for Peter Mullan’s film NEDS, a coming of age film set in Glasgow in the 1970s, Cameron got the part and it led to film The Eagle, starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell, and a string of other parts and opportunities.

“I kind of fell into it,” he says, with a laugh. “Now that I’m in this world, I do sort of wish I’d done youth theatre, or gone to drama classes – but I love the way people come to things in different ways and have different experiences. And who knows if I had gone to drama school, would it have worked out this way, anyway?”

Landing the role of young Tyler on River City has been an “amazing” experience, says Cameron.

“I absolutely love Tyler,” he says. “He’s been brought up in this world of crime and gangsters, without any hint of love, or nurture from anyone, and he really doesn’t want to be in this world.

“Because he’s small and baby-faced, he’s not really given any respect either, so he pushes too far and bites off more than he can chew to try and find his place in it all.”

Cameron admits he can relate to Tyler in some ways.

“In terms of the lack of love shown to him, that couldn’t be further from the truth – my family has always been incredibly supportive,” he says. “But I can definitely understand that struggle to find your place, to cope with being the ‘wee’ man, worrying if people will pick on you because of your size and having to develop a thick skin to cope with it. Tyler is a more extreme version of it, but I can definitely relate.”

Big scenes are coming, he teases. “Tyler has been setting one gangster up against another and that’s never going to end well,” he grins. “He’s a real snake in the grass.”

He breaks off with a laugh. “Snakes, serpents…I can’t get away from them….”

An Infernal Serpent is at Oran Mor until Saturday.