Scotland At The Movies

02 April 2009, 15:46

James Cosmo, famous for his role as Campbell in Braveheart, told STV how important he thinks the film industry is to Scotland.

"One of the reasons I’m so passionate about Scotland and studios in Scotland is that when I did Braveheart, we filmed for five weeks just outside Inverness and I saw how quickly it transformed the community because of the money it brought to it, " he said.

The son of late actor James Copeland practically grew up on Scottish film sets. He decided to follow in his father's footsteps and has had roles both in TV and films. He believes that even though Scotland is such a small country, it stands out because it produces amazing talent.

"For the number of people that are in Scotland we produce fantastic film makers, fantastic actors, fantastic production people, so as always Scotland is a great exporter of its people," he gushed.

In 2001 Cosmo announced plans for a formation of a £20 million film studio complex at Milton of Leys near Inverness, however it didn't come to fruition. He voiced his frustration to STV.

" We’ve got everything. We’ve got wonderful technicians, we’ve got wonderful actors, we’ve got wonderful workmen that can build anything, make anything so why don’t we make more use of it?"

He continued to explain why it's so important that the Scottish filming community should be true to Scotland.

"As a film making community, I think we’ve produced some wonderful Scottish films that are very pertinent to Scotland. They mean something to Scotland."

"Not trying to be global, but just making films for their own people, I think that’s really important."

Last updated: 02 April 2009, 16:16