logo
Mel Gibson poses for selfies with fans to mark 30 years of Braveheart film

Mel Gibson poses for selfies with fans to mark 30 years of Braveheart film

Leader Live09-08-2025
Fans travelled from all over Ireland to get a chance of meeting the Oscar-winning actor and director, who starred as the Scottish hero in the historical epic.
The film was mostly shot in Ireland – despite the story being set in Scotland – after the Irish government lobbied and offered to supply 1,600 army reserves as extras.
People queued at Trim Castle Hotel to meet Gibson and other Braveheart cast members.
The event was held as part of the local King John Summer Prom festival, with proceeds raised for the Irish Equity Support Fund.
Maksim Okhotnikov, eight, dressed up as Braveheart hero William Wallace in a costume created by his mother, who also sketched a charcoal drawing of Gibson.
'I didn't watch all of the film, I just watched pieces because it's (rated) 16+,' Maksim told the PA news agency.
Asked what he likes about the film, he said: 'I like himself'.
Adam Walker and his son, Nathan, seven, from Dublin, were among the first people into the room to meet the cast.
'Obviously he's too young to watch the full movie, so I was trying to show him the quotes, the big freedom speech at the end of the movie. We were watching that, we were watching the mad Irishman of course: David O'Hara who plays Stephen of Ireland,' Mr Walker told PA.
'We were at the Q&A yesterday and a lot of the lads pointed out that the actors said the thing that it did was it really changed things, Ireland seemed to really latch onto it, there was a lot of similarities between the Irish and the Scottish, but it seemed to call out to everybody.
'We were looking for a wedding venue 12 years back and we were looking everywhere and we found here, it was lovely, the prices were great, and then I read at the end the castle was where Braveheart was filmed.
'I said to my wife 'we're doing it' so we got married in the room just there and we had the castle as the backdrop.
'So it's very interesting to be able to come back 12 years later and actually meet Mel Gibson here, and this little lad wasn't even alive at the time.'
Elaine Coyle, who travelled with her mother from Dublin, said watching Braveheart was a family tradition.
'My dad would be a big fan, it's what we grew up with. It's a Christmas tradition in our house,' she said.
She said of the film: 'You can relate to it as an Irish person a little bit too, it's iconic.
'It definitely opened the door to the Irish economy around films, it completely changed how the industry worked going forward, but I think in general people recognise that it made such an impact on Ireland, and we can also relate to the history of it. It's generational.'
Cousins Eileen Shields and Anita McGrath travelled from Galway at 6am to meet the star.
They said they are fans of Gibson's films Lethal Weapon and Daddy's Home 2.
'He has a wicked wink in his eye,' Eileen Shields said.
'It was lovely to meet him, short and sweet but it's nice to have the opportunity.
'Hopefully we see a lot more of him in Ireland. You know his family are from Longford, he was named after St Mel's Cathedral.'
Anita McGrath said: 'I crocheted a shamrock for him, for good luck, so I gave it to him and he said 'thanks very much'. Just something different.'
Ms Shields added: 'He wiped his brow with it.'
Sevinc Ozogul, who lives across the road from the hotel, said she was excited to see the castle from Braveheart when she moved to Trim.
She said Gibson is also one of her favourite actors, adding: 'I was so excited to see him.'
She added: 'He was a bit tired but he looks great.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Netflix confirms second season of crime thriller which became most watched Scottish show
Netflix confirms second season of crime thriller which became most watched Scottish show

Scottish Sun

time11 minutes ago

  • Scottish Sun

Netflix confirms second season of crime thriller which became most watched Scottish show

GREEN LIGHT Netflix confirms second season of crime thriller which became most watched Scottish show Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) CRIME thriller Dept. Q has been renewed for a second series after being crowned Scotland's most streamed show this year. The Edinburgh-set detective drama clocked up 25.4 million views during the first half of 2025 - beating comedian Richard Gadd's drama Baby Reindeer to top spot. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 2 The series will return to Edinburgh again. Credit: PA 2 Leah Byrne, Matthew Goode and Alexej Manvelov attends Dept. Q screening. Credit: Getty It was announced yesterday that the programme - an adaptation of Jussi Adler-Olsen's novels - will return to the capital for another instalment. The homegrown success sees Matthew Goode, 47, as Detective Chief Inspector Carl Morck, an emotionally scarred detective who becomes the head of cold case unit. He will return along with his team of misfits – Alexej Manvelov, 43, as Akram, Leah Byrne, 28, as Rose and Jamie Sives, 52, as Hardy. Lead man Goode said: 'I'd like to thank Netflix for giving us the opportunity to further investigate Department Q's storylines. "We have a wonderful cast and crew, headed by our resident genius Scott Frank. "I cannot wait to read what comes from his magic quill." Writer Frank added: 'I'm grateful to the folks at Netflix, as well as our shining cast and crew, for once more risking their careers to enable my folly.' Netflix execs Mona Qureshi and Manda Levin, said 'We are raring to return to Carl Morck and his band of glorious misfits at Dept. Q. "Scott Frank brought us best-in-class storytelling and thrilled Netflix audiences worldwide. "We can't wait to see what Morck and the gang uncover in Season 2…. Edinburgh, we're back.' First look at Cillian Murphy in brand-new Netflix flick Meanwhile, bold plans to save one of Scotland most iconic TV studios have been unveiled. Dumbarton Studios has been the home of filming for River City for 23 years BBC Scotland announced it plans to close the facility after it was revealed in March that the popular soap will be axed. Dumbarton Studios has been described as a "vital hub" for the country's television industry. It has helped develop local talent and has been a location for filming other shows, such as Still Game, Shetland and Two Doors Down. BBC Scotland's lease on Dumbarton Studios will come to an end in September next year. Firewalker Pictures is seeking to take over the facility and safeguard its future. Maureen Hascoet, director of the production firm, hailed Dumbarton Studios and said "it deserves more than to fade into history". She added: "Our vision is to preserve its heritage while opening the doors to fresh voices, emerging filmmakers, and groundbreaking content. Who we choose to be right now as an industry and how we show up in this deal will determine our destiny. "It's about more than preserving Scotland's film and TV infrastructure. It's about investing in ourselves as storytellers and finding our place as leaders in the global economy."

The Edinburgh TV Festival must do more for Scottish talent
The Edinburgh TV Festival must do more for Scottish talent

The National

time2 hours ago

  • The National

The Edinburgh TV Festival must do more for Scottish talent

Over the next 4 days at the top rating event in the television industry calendar, an estimated 2000 small screen professionals will attend more than 60 keynote lectures, debates, masterclasses and networking opportunities. But despite the main sponsor being Scotland's national screen agency, 206 of the 220 participants invited to speak at or moderate the ETVF's main panel sessions are based outside Scotland. That's 93%. I don't think this represents a good enough return on Screen Scotland's investment. READ MORE: Scottish university ranked among worst in the UK for Palestine repression What's more, if you're a freelancer based in Scotland, a standard four-day pass will still set you back you £899 plus booking fee and VAT. A 'limited' number of £50 day passes were allocated for the second or third days. This gesture was aimed at the more than 50% of tv freelancers around the UK who aren't currently working as a result of a severe contraction the volume of programmes and films being commissioned. The reality is very few Scottish freelancers can afford to go. I sincerely hope the ETVF is collecting all the data. We're paying for this bash so it would be good to know exactly how much of our screen talent have been able to attend. The ETVF has been held in Scotland's capital city since 1976, presumably to tie in with the cultural delights on offer at the Edinburgh International Festival, giving TV execs, commissioners and producers the opportunity to powwow and hobnob while taking in a couple hit shows. But despite being supported by Screen Scotland since other funders fell away during the lockdown years, the Edinburgh Television Festival's office is still located in London. Just one of the sixteen staff members listed on its website are based in Scotland. These optics are not good and, history aside, once Screen Scotland became its principal funder, with a funding award of £86,000 this year, you'd have thought this would change. After all, we invented the telephone as well as television. Curation of the 50th anniversary ETVF programme has been co-curated by this year's Advisory Chair Jane Tranter, CEO of Bad Wolf, a successful film and high end tv drama production company based in Wales. Few delegates will know that 95% of the senior creative teams hired to work on three seasons of His Dark Materials, that Bad Wolf made for HBO, isn't Welsh. 40% are based in London. Stephen Lambert, television producer extraordinaire, has been invited to talk about his life and work. I'd wager he won't be mentioning that the only way to get his company to increase the number of freelancers based in Scotland working on The Traitors, a BBC Network Scottish commission, was to for Screen Scotland to pay it to create a handful of trainee roles. In the run up to this week, the Chair of the Edinburgh TV Festival commented on a LinkedIn post decrying the festival's elitism by pointing out the town halls that were held around the UK earlier this year to generate panel topic ideas. It's not all 'Tina Fey and Graham Norton' says Fatima Salaria. 'We've curated a schedule that includes sessions on: The collapse of the commissioning pipeline, Freelancer burnout, The impact of AI on creative work, The future of PSB, regional opportunity, and inclusion and accountability in toxic workplace cultures.' It's all good stuff but very few of Scotland's television freelancers will be there to benefit. What's more, many of the main sessions at the ETVF will be closed to the press so won't be reported, nor filmed or recorded for others to watch at a later date. For those who do make it, some of the networking sessions are barely an hour long. Good luck standing out from the crowd in that speed dating scenario. There is some good news. Last year, just one of the panellists was based in Scotland, Kirsty Wark. So, this year represents an increase. But the 7% of panellists who are based in Scotland includes a single senior tv freelancer, a celebrated director of high drama. Just one! THE others are two Channel 4 commissioning editors, plus another from MG Alba, the Directors of BBC Scotland and Culture & Experience at the People's Postcode Lottery, three Execs from two independent productions companies, an author/rapper/broadcaster, and two comedians, no joke, all of whom are, if I'm not mistaken, based in or work out of Glasgow which, by the way, is the centre of TV production in Scotland, not Edinburgh. Working with the ETVF, Screen Scotland has jointly provided 21 producers, development producers, directors and writers based in Scotland with full delegate passes, nine of whom also receive accommodation in Edinburgh during the event. It's good but not enough. There will of course be multiple other positive outcomes for Scotland, the opportunity for our brilliant production companies to meet with London and International television decision makers being the most significant. Broadcasting is going through a period of unprecedented change, existential for many Scottish freelancers, and we need to understand what's happening in a production ecosystem that's increasingly globally focused. There are many challenges, mostly significantly how tv programmes will be funded in the future. No one has all the answers. No one quite knows what lies ahead. This week, at the ETVF, all the big topics will be discussed. PSB and streamer shopping lists will be outlined and precious market insight revealed, enabling programme and script developers to better tailor their pitches and meet commissioner requirements. Securing greenlights is the name of the game. But very few of Scotland's television production freelancers will be there to learn from all the assembled talent, begging the question, is Screen Scotland's sponsorship of the Edinburgh Television Festival achieving all that it could? Unless, this Scottish public money is used to break down some of the barriers that have held Scotland's directors and producers back for decades, namely access to opportunity, then the answer most definitely is, no it isn't.

Council grant THIS to Glasgow's Citizens Theatre ahead of reopening
Council grant THIS to Glasgow's Citizens Theatre ahead of reopening

Glasgow Times

time2 hours ago

  • Glasgow Times

Council grant THIS to Glasgow's Citizens Theatre ahead of reopening

The theatre, which is based in the Gorbals and first opened in 1878, has been closed since 2018 for redevelopment works and will welcome audiences through its door for the first time this Saturday, August 23. Members of the local authority's licensing board were told on Friday how steps have been taken to modernise the theatre and a new license was needed to do so. They were also advised on how the team wants to make the building more welcoming to young people and encourage them to take part in activities and classes. READ NEXT: Man to use walking stick for rest of life after HGV hit him causing bleed to brain READ NEXT: Scottish gangland figure 'The Don' back in court for this reason Speaking to the board, representative for The Citizens Theatre Audrey Junner said: 'The Citizen's Theatre closed in 2018 and has been subjected to extreme refurbishment. 'There have been some delays over the years but it is due to open this week. 'It is an amazing facility and the group wants to make the theatre more accessible while retaining the features it already has. 'We want the opportunity to modernise the theatre moving forward but the current licence does not give them the flexibility to do so. We have applied for changes to the licence. 'We want to add more seating to the side and in front of the would be covered by CCTV and staff would cover the area while it is in use. 'We want to accommodate more young people into the theatre for lots of different reasons, for example activities, lessons and classes. 'We don't have a restaurant but there is a large space on the first floor that would serve as a function area.' Questions were raised about potential sound proofing of the building and measures taken to ensure nearby residents are not disturbed. Councillor Dan Hutchison said: 'Could you tell us about the terrace. There are residents who will live close to the terrace but is there any sound proofing in place?' Kate Denby, executive director, said: 'The terrace is on the south side of the building and there is a wall between the terrace and the street. 'It will be more of a performance space for when a performance starts outside and then moves indoors. It would allow creativity.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store