5 days ago
Braveheart is a load of bollocks, says Brian Cox
Scotland's greatest living male actor has finally admitted what the rest of the world suspected — Braveheart is 'bollocks'.
Brian Cox, who agreed to star in the 1995 Oscar-winning film after repeated entreaties from its director and star Mel Gibson, said the script was 'crap' and that liberties were taken with historical accuracy.
'The film is just bollocks. It doesn't make any sense,' the 79-year-old actor told the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Cox revealed that he had initially turned down Braveheart, instead opting to perform in Rob Roy — another Scottish historical epic that was due to be shot at the same time.
He said Gibson then pleaded with him to take a part in the film and Cox finally relented.
'I said, well, there is a very good part at the beginning, a guy called Argyle but I'm wrong for him because he should be cadaverous and thin. And he [Gibson] said: 'No, you can play it.'
Cox added: 'I just didn't want to be in a kilt. Of course they didn't have kilts in those days but they had to have kilts [in the film] because that is what it is about.'
In response to questioning from film critic Mark Kermode, Cox agreed the film was 'tosh-like', adding: 'It is a f***ing lie, the whole thing.'
Braveheart, which won the best picture Oscar, has been lauded by generations of Scottish nationalist politicians, with the late Alex Salmond's Alba Party even channelling the film in a 2021 campaign advert.
At its premiere in 1995, Salmond — in reference to the film's central character William Wallace being hung, drawn and quartered in London — said he would 'decapitate' his then political opponent, Michael Forsyth.
He later ended a party conference speech echoing Wallace's battle cry from the film: 'Freedom, freedom, freedom'.
It is generally accepted that the film, which charts Scotland's 14th-century fight for independence from England, was a boon for the Scottish nationalist cause. The SNP recorded its highest poll ratings in seven years immediately after its release.
From its release, however, there were huge question marks over its historical accuracy, with the central romance between Wallace, played by Gibson, and Isabella of France, played by Sophie Marceau, entirely fabricated.
One historian reportedly found 18 inaccuracies in the first two and a half minutes of the film, which still received ten Academy Award nominations. It won five, including best director for Gibson.
Cox said that he had been drawn to the film because of Gibson, adding: 'He is great. Mel is wonderful to work with. He gets a bad rap but actually he is a really good man. I saw him deal with some lads [on the film] who were alcoholically inclined and he used to deal with them absolutely beautifully.'
The script by Randall Wallace, which was based on the 15th-century poem The Wallace, by Blind Harry, earned the writer an Oscar nomination.
The actor has been in Edinburgh playing the economist Adam Smith in James Graham's latest play, Make it Happen, the big hit of the Edinburgh Festival.
Cox, who has become known to new generations through his role as Logan Roy in the drama series Succession, has also been working on his directorial debut, Glenrothan, which he stars in with Alan Cumming. It is due to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month.
He also told the book festival he had postponed a planned solo talking tour after listening to his family, who had pleaded with him to reduce his workload.
'My family have been urging me to do it [have a break],' he said. 'Both my sons were worried about me. I'm fine but they do worry about me. And yeah maybe I have gone a wee bit too far. Maybe I have just got to stop.'
Which means, one assumes, a Braveheart sequel is definitely not on the cards.
