There are many impressive characters in Sons of Anarchy. Each has their own fan favorite. The character Chibs is one of the most popular characters in the series. His iconic scar is not just makeup. The actor who plays Chibs had the scar before he started acting.
What is the Glasgow Smile? The Glasgow Smile is a specific type of scar on the face. The scar widens the mouth to create a permanent smile. The most famous form of this can be seen in The Dark Knight on the Joker, played by Heath Ledger.
The character Chibs from Sons of Anarchy also has such a scar, which is like a unique selling point. However, unlike Heath Ledger, the actor who plays Chibs does not simply wear the scar as make-up, but in real life. Even before he started acting, he had the scar from a fight in which he almost died.
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After he almost died, he decided to act
In an interview with Inside of You, Tommy Flanagan, who plays Chibs, spoke about keeping his scar. This was before he became an actor. He says he was still working as a DJ in Glasgow in his 20s.
In the interview, he tells how guys approached him at the time and told him that they had killed his brother. He then hit one of the group, grabbed a bottle and tried to fight them outside. He waited for the group, but the guys then attacked Flanagan with knives. He received several wounds, including the Glasgow Smile on his face.
Despite his many wounds, Tommy Flanagan survived the attack, which he says almost killed him. In hospital, a friend approached him and asked him if he would rather work in his theater company than the dangerous life of a DJ in Glasgow. He accepted the opportunity, although he never thought of becoming an actor.
In the interview, he explains how the original Mad Max films inspired him and that he was able to work directly with Mel Gibson on his first film, Braveheart. He then acted in films such as The Body of My Enemy and Gladiator and finally in 2008 in Sons of Anarchy.
Why is this scar called Glasgow Smile? As History Defined explains, the Glasgow Smile was a form of punishment used by gangs in Scotland in the 1920s and 1930s. It was a sort of message to rival gangs.
If you were in the wrong territory, you were scarred for life. This is still said to happen today, but not to the extent that it did during industrialization. Sons of Anarchy has many sources of inspiration from real life. For the role of Jax Teller, Charlie Hunnam spoke to a real young biker: “He was like an old-school outlaw” – The star of the biker series Sons of Anarchy spoke about the real “Jax Teller”