Exclusive:Interview: Brian Cox on Holyrood election, 'deadbeat' Trump and 'hideous' Farage
In an exclusive interview with The Scotsman, the acclaimed actor discusses politics, war, and his hopes for the future
It does not take much for Brian Cox to lose his temper these days. The veteran actor may be bearing down on a landmark birthday in June, but the prospect of becoming an octogenarian has not blunted his sharper edges, nor mellowed his outlook on a world riven by conflict.
Donald Trump, unsurprisingly, is a particular focus for his ire at present. Cox has been following events in the Middle East, and is aghast not just at what has happened under the US president’s watch, but what may lie in wait.
“He never has an exit strategy, because he can’t think further than his own stupidity,” Cox insists. “The man is an incredible deadbeat, a deadbeat on human society,” he says. “He’s a f****** nuisance, and he’s ignorant, he’s so f****** ignorant about what’s going on in the world.
“He’s not interested in the people of Iran, that’s clearly not why he’s gone in, he’s gone into Iran for the oil. It’s all about oil, it’s got f*** all to do with people. He’s disgusting, and his partner in crime, Netanyahu, is equally disgusting - he should be in prison, quite frankly.”
Irascibility, of course, has been one of Cox’s calling cards as an actor. From high-profile turns such as his portrayal of Logan Roy in the hit television series, Succession, to indie offerings like Wes Anderson’s second feature film, Rushmore, he has long been a go-to for directors in search of disgruntlement and a frisson of menace.
Having long been an outspoken figure in an industry dominated by bland, PR-driven soundbites, the Golden Globe-winning Scot has become, in the eyes of some, inseparable from his best known roles. But it would be a disservice to characterise it as grumpiness. It is, if anything, a burning indignation.
Consider, for example, his views on Nigel Farage, Reform UK, and the tilting political axis that has seen that party and others like it gaining prominence in recent years. “Farage is a pain in the t*** if ever there was one,” Cox says. “The man is appalling, he is totally appalling.”
“That’s the way the world is moving, it’s moving towards oligarchy and fascism, and we’ve got to stop it,” he adds, becoming increasingly agitated, his voice rising to a shout. “We have to stop it because it’s getting out of hand.”
The 79 year-old and his wife, Nicole Ansari-Cox, are speaking to The Scotsman ahead of a busy time for both. Nicole, an actor, director and producer, is headed to New York for the US premiere on Sunday of a play about Gisèle Pelicot, having recently co-produced and performed as part of Women’s Voices, a multi-art form festival at London’s Playground Theatre.
The programme included a staging of her play, SHE/HER, that ran at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022. The latest performance was dedicated to the women of Iran and felt especially resonant, Nicole says, given recent events.
“It was important for me not just to hear intimate accounts of women’s lives, but from women in conflict, and how do you express yourself in a society where you’re being completely suppressed,” explains the 56 year-old, the daughter of a German mother and Iranian father. “In Iran, it’s been like that for the past 47 years.”
Cox, meanwhile, is bound for Edinburgh, where he will on Saturday address the Believe in Scotland pro-independence rally alongside other speakers including John Swinney. It is an issue the proud Dundonian remains intensely passionate about. Famously, he was for years a prominent Labour supporter, but the Iraq war and its shift away from its traditional socialist values meant Cox - the son of a grocer and a jute mill spinner - found a new home in the SNP.
It was, he admits, a party that was “quite right of centre” for a long time, but he admired the shift achieved under Nicola Sturgeon, and believes Mr Swinney remains the best person to occupy the office of first minister.
“John is a really good man, and that’s what we need - goodness,” he stresses. “We haven’t got enough goodness, there’s too many bad people. John’s a caring man and deserves to be given the respect that he’s earned, quite frankly.”
Not that Cox toes the line with every party policy. His support for independence may be unflinching, but he believes even the realisation of that dream must arrive alongside a new federal framework across the UK.
He explains: “It’s all very well saying we’re independent, but the danger is cutting ourselves off. That mustn’t happen. We have to be responsible for these islands, and not as a poor relation, but as a relation that means something and contributes something positive.
“I want an independent Scotland, I want an independent Wales, and I also want an independent Northern Ireland until the Irish get it together again, because that’s the future.
“That’s the only way we’re going to survive - by being equal, not by being some poor f****** relation, because we’ve been the poor f****** relation for far too f****** long, and we’ve put up with it, because that’s what we are. We’re known as the long suffering people, it’s never got any better. It’s not a United Kingdom, it’s never been a f****** United Kingdom, it’s a disunited kingdom.”
But, I wonder, has enough been done by those in the independence movement to evolve their arguments and advance such a case? Cox pauses for a moment and smiles. “No, because I think I’m the only one who’s been advancing them quite frankly,” he replies laughing. “I haven’t heard anyone else go on about it.”
Even so, he will, as usual, be backing the SNP for victory this May, describing the party as “the only ones with any sense,” and wants Scotland to “get back to who we were as a nation.” He gestures to one of his favourite books, How the Scots Invented the Modern World by US historian, Arthur Herman, which examines the global impact on the Scottish Enlightenment, and says the time to recapture some of that energy and purpose is long overdue.
“It’s time that we got back to who we were as a nation, how we led, how we created the modern world, and understand our virtue as Scots,” he reasons. “We’ve got to be front and forward with our ideas, and at the moment we’re not. At the moment we’re just trying to be careful.”
He also has a curt, colourful message asking any voters backing Reform to carefully reconsider. “What are the Scottish people who think he [Farage] is the answer thinking about?” he asks. “He’s not the answer, he’s the f****** last thing but the answer.
“It’s absolute desperation and alienation. We’ve been so alienated for so long, people are thinking, ‘What about this?’. But no, people, not this guy, anything else but this guy, because he’s the wrong man, he’s hideous.”
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