Brian Cox never thought he’d direct a film "in a million years" before Glenrothan

In his long acting career, Brian Cox has appeared in a very impressive array of films and TV shows. But despite having previously directed for the stage, it's taken him until now – at the ripe old age of 79 – to step behind the camera and helm a screen project.

His directorial debut is Glenrothan, a sentimental, Scotland set drama about two estranged brothers, played by Cox himself and Alan Cumming, who are reunited after several decades apart.

Cox stars as Sandy, the owner of a whisky distillery who has never moved away from his (fictional) home town, while Cumming is Donal, who has been residing in Chicago for the past 35 years but – after a disaster – decides the time is finally right to return to Scotland and possibly even make amends with his brother.

Ahead of release, Radio Times spoke exclusively to Cox about what drove him to direct – and it turned out it wasn't something that had been especially high on his own bucket list.

"Blame that man over there," he laughed, pointing to his agent. "That was not my idea. I still describe it as force majeure, you know. I was told I was directing this film, and I thought, 'Well, no,' and he said, 'No, you're directing this film!"

"I never, ever thought I'd direct a film in a million years," he added. "Just the last thing in the world I expected. I just didn't think that was ever going to happen. And [then] it came along."

Cox explained that the script had been written by one of his "oldest friends" David Ashton, with whom he has worked on the BBC Radio 4 crime drama series McLevy, and when he read it he was quickly won over despite his initial reservations about making the move behind the camera.

"I thought, 'Well, this is rather a beautiful story,' he explained. "A very simple story, and a very compassionate story for our day. It's about relationships, about brothers, about family. And there's not a lot of that kind of film in Scotland.

"It's a gentle film," he added. "And I thought you can't do a number on it. It would not serve the film at all. You just have to allow the film to speak for itself. And that's the way I love to direct anyway. So you sit with the actors, and they do all the work, and then you find the appropriate background for it in every aspect."

Meanwhile, Cox also explained that given the subject matter of the film and his own personal relationship with Scotland, he was quickly persuaded this was a project he was "supposed to be doing".

"At my age now, and especially my whole relationship to our land and how I feel about it now, and how it's in my system," he said. "I may not live there [but] the thing about Scots is we are nomads. We come from that small place.... but what we did is astonishing. You know, television, the telephone, anaesthesia. We've done everything, we've created so much.

"And we are sometimes treated in a way which I don't think we deserve. And it's great that three films have gone on, the one with Jimmy McAvoy [California Schemin'] and the one with Richard Gadd [upcoming TV show Half Man].

"It's really wonderful that these Scottish films are finally emerging, because it's a great place to tell stories."

As for how helming a film differed from his aforementioned work directing for the stage, Cox explained that the main change was that he had "to acknowledge a greater number of people".

"When you work on a play you've got the stage management but basically it's just the actors," he said. "In a film, it's everybody. And what I realised – and the thing that was important to me – was it was going to be egalitarian, that everybody is equal.

"I'm not a conceptual director in any way, shape or form. I mean, maybe there's a subject where I could maybe be more like that, but not in this film."

He added that the most important thing of all was that each member of the team he'd assembled – including cinematographer Jaime Ackroyd and production designer Laura Donnelly – did "a brilliant job".

"And I think I have a pretty formidable cast," he continued. "I don't think you can get any better than Alan [Cumming]. I don't think you can get any better than Shirley Henderson. Alexandra Shipp was like a gift.

"And then we had Alexandra Wilkie, who's this wee lassie from Blantyre. She's never done an American part in her life, and she was playing this American accent. She is incredible and I think in many ways she's the real star of the movie, Alexandra – because she's just astonishing!"

Glenrothan is released in UK cinemas on Friday 17 April.

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