SCREEN veteran James Cosmo starred as Trainspotting junkie Mark Renton’s
father — but never imagined it would become the daddy of Scottish films.
Tuesday marks 20 years since Danny Boyle’s movie shocked the world with its
portrayal of heroin addiction, catapulting Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner,
Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd and Kelly Macdonald to fame.
James, 68, looks back fondly on his time shooting the iconic drugs flick and
the heart-breaking scenes which saw his character trying to get his son off
smack.
He told The Scottish Sun: “It was such a ground-breaking piece of work.
Although Danny had done Shallow Grave, it was Trainspotting that catapulted
him into the world spotlight.
“It really was something special.
“I’d love to say that I could tell how big it would be but I couldn’t.
“I just did what Danny told me. You knew it was a good film though.
“I’d worked with him before on a film and I knew how talented he was as a
director.
“And the part I had reflected a scenario that’s sadly played out so often
throughout the world, the problem with kids and drugs.”
Filming on the sequel, due out next year and directed again by Danny, starts
in May.
James says: “Those are always tough but I can’t see those guys getting
anything wrong to be honest. Danny wouldn’t take something on unless he had
absolute confidence it was going to live up to the first one.
“I haven’t heard a word so I doubt if I’ll be asked back. But I look forward
to watching it immensely.”
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James — whose career was transformed in 1995 after starring in Braveheart
alongside Mel Gibson — still bumps into his co-stars from time to time.
Last year, he shone alongside Robert Carlyle — hardman Begbie in Trainspotting
— in his directorial debut The Legend Of Barney Thomson, playing barber
Barney’s boss James Henderson.
The Clydebank-born star is also close friends with Kevin McKidd, 42, who
played Tommy in Trainspotting.
He says: “I worked on Bobby’s film and I saw Ewen Bremner a little while ago
at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. He’s a wonderful actor.
“It’s lovely to see Kevin when I’m in America too.” In recent years there has
been plenty to shout about for the actor who lives in Surrey with wife
Annie, mum to their grown-up sons Findlay and Ethan.
Viewers have seen him pop up in global sensations Sons Of Anarchy and Game Of
Thrones, while closer to home he’s appeared in BBC dramas Shetland, Case
Histories, Death In Paradise and Silent Witness.
Next weekend, he returns in the Beeb’s network comedy thriller Stag. James
says: “I’ve been in the business 51 years now and this last year has been
the busiest I’ve ever been.
“Thank goodness it hasn’t stopped.
“As a working actor you live a very privileged life.
“I don’t have to get up five days a week and go to work in a factory. I’m
always aware of that. I started when I was 15 in the ship-breakers in
Clydebank — that’s real work.” The three-part series, which also features
The League Of Gentleman funnyman Reece Shearsmith, follows a school teacher
and his pals on a deer-stalking expedition in the Highlands.
The stag do turns sour when the hunting party realise they themselves are in
danger.
James says: “I had a great time on it and I’ve got huge admiration for comedy
actors.
“It’s a terribly difficult thing, especially when you don’t have an audience
to work off.
“It’s tough being funny and I’m not very good at it.
“I play the stalker that takes them out — I’m hired to look after them.
“He’s a very dour, silent type of man. He has a very ominous presence about
him and you can see that he obviously detests these sorts of people.”
He adds: “Strangely, I didn’t have a stag party. My wife and I got married in
Hawaii. There was her and me and a Hawaiian guy with a conch shell — that
was it.”
Despite starring in biker drama Sons Of Anarchy (as Father Kellan Ashby) and
HBO smash Game Of Thrones (as Lord Commander Jeor Mormont), it is portraying
William Wallace’s sidekick Campbell in Braveheart that has stuck in fans’
minds.
James, whose credits also include Hollywood blockbusters like Troy and The
Chronicles Of Narnia, says: “Those two shows are hugely popular with the
younger generation which is great.
“I love being part of something so popular and it’s nice when people come up
and want to swear fealty towards Mormont in the street. That’s quite funny.
“But when I did Braveheart all those years ago I was playing an old guy and
now I am an old guy so people recognise me just as much these days.”
And at 68 he has no plans to retire. He adds: “I’ll be an actor until the day
I drop. It’s what I am. It’s not part of my life — it is my life. That and
my family and that’s about it really.”
lStag is on BBC Two, on Saturday, at 9pm.
Carl will be a knockout
JAMES is a boxing fanatic — and he’ll be following next Saturday’s
super-bantamweight fight between Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg.
Carl, left, is coached by Barry McGuigan. James got to know the former boxer,
54, last year as he prepared to play a lonely former fighter in boxing flick
The Pyramid Texts.
He says: “I think it’s going to be one of the great fights of this decade. I’m
a friend of Barry’s therefore I’ll be in Carl Frampton’s corner a wee bit
more.”