ALAN Cumming has said Scotland is fighting against being ruled by London – and Edinburgh International Festival’s new director shows exactly why.
The Hollywood actor said the appointment of Nicola Benedetti, the first woman and first Scot to direct the festival, was a “microcosm of what we are fighting against”.
Cumming spoke to The National at the premiere of his new film My Old School at the Glasgow Film Festival.
Talking at the Glasgow Film Theatre’s red carpet, the theatre and film star confirmed he was still “100% a Yes man” when asked how he felt about being back in Glasgow, a Scottish Yes city.
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He went on to say that the acclaimed violinist’s appointment to the festival showed just what Scots are up against.
The Aberfeldy-born actor said the Edinburgh festival now has a “great Scottish modern women” – and compared Benedetti to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Lulu said she was excited to appear in the film as a cartoon
“Nicola Benedetti becoming the Edinburgh International Festival director just seems to me like the whole independence thing in microcosm,” he said.
“It’s the first Scottish person to do that, the first woman, but the first time in the whole history of the Edinburgh International Festival that a Scottish person has run it and that seems to me to be what we are fighting against.
“We are fighting against the way our country is governed outside of Scotland the way the festival used to be run outside London.
“So it’s like self-determining now with a great Scottish woman modern woman and we’ve got that in our government as well with Nicola [Sturgeon]”.
Cumming was joined by much of the cast of the new film, which follows spectacular story of a Scot who in 1993 managed to enrol at Bearsden Academy and convince the school he was just 16 years – when in fact he was 30.
READ MORE: Alan Cumming tells Nicola Sturgeon about his plans to move back to Scotland
The cast arrived in Glasgow for the in-person premiere of the documentary directed by Jono McLeod.
Cumming said: “It’s such a Glasgow story but it’s whisky galore - it’s one of these legendary Scottish tales that nobody can believe it happened.
“Myths like that, they grow and grow and expand that’s what I love about this is that it retells you that myth and it tells you the other side about the people who were actually there too and also the legacy of it.
"I am glad it is in Glasgow … this is the first live audience it has ever had."
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