Question: Why isn't Dougray Scott a major international star?

Missing out on X-Men was definitely a blow to Dougray's career but there's no reason he couldn't have recovered with another high profile role. I suspect he's purposefully avoided big blockbuster movies after doing M:I2 or else he just has a really bad agent, but he seems to have made a conscious decision to not do anything BIG since M:I2.

No, it's because he still pees the bed.

His perfomance in MI2 is, i think, outstandingly brilliant. He sizzles with malevolence- it should have brought him more roles of this type. I think its his decision not to take them.

It's not as if MI2 did badly at the box office... in fact, I think it was the top grossing film of 2000.

And we can thank fate for Jackman entering at the last second; I just don't see Scott as Wolverine.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodHypeMachine

Dougray Scott got a lot of hype after his role as Prince Charming in Ever After and soon became the front-runner for roles such as Wolverine and James Bond. But after Mission: Impossible II went over schedule, he was forced to give up the Wolverine role to a little-known Australian actor named Hugh Jackman. While Jackman became a huge star, Scott's career fell into a tailspin as he's spent much of his career toiling away in TV movies, short-lived TV series (plus a single season on Desperate Housewives, just as the show was beginning its long descent in ratings and buzz) and little-seen movies (his possible low point being the 2011 film Love's Kitchen, which grossed just £121 at the UK box office).

Answer: He's nothing special.

Proud member of the Pro-film Anti-digital Society (PFADS).

He fucking sucked in this. Worst of the M:I villains. Including bipolar Jon Voight.

Dougray Scott: A Man For All Seasons

https://lebeauleblog.com/2020/03/19/dougray-scott-a-man-for-all-seasons/

Dougray Scott was originally cast as Wolverine in the first X-Men movie. He had to drop out due to reshoots on Mission: Impossible 2. Those Mission: Impossible movies have a habit of interfering with superhero movies, don’t they. Today, you can catch Scott on the Batwoman TV show where he plays the hero’s father. This profile from the February 1999 issue of Movieline magazine came before Scott’s mutant heartbreak when he was still a rising star.

Dougray Scott had years of hard grind in British theater and television behind him, and he’d done his share of disappointing movies before he got to the point where everything could look so easy. It was his standout performance as a brutal, psychotic, drug-dealing cop in Twin Town (an inferior Trainspotting rip-off) that led to a screen test for Ever After, and if that seems an unlikely transition, it’s just one of many in his career. Scott’s resume includes a role on the TV series Highlander, a bit part in the Phoebe Cates vehicle Princess Caraboo, a serious turn as poet Robert Graves in the small British film Regeneration, and a part in Another 9 1/2 Weeks, Mickey Rourke’s sequel to 9 1/2 Weeks.

Try telling a self-described “character actor” who’s done a range of good, bad and indifferent material that he’s now a new heartthrob–or, worse, a sex symbol–and incomprehension sets in. “I never look in the mirror if I can help it, it’s em-baaarr-assing,” he says in the beguiling Scottish burr he can convert to the Queen’s English or convincing American with little effort. “Embarrassed” is one of Scott’s most frequently used words–he’s embarrassed by adulation, by questions about his personal life, by poor scripts (many of which he is now sent), and by the thought of giving anything less than his best performance.