CREDO Credo...
I wore a kilt at my wedding up the Empire State Building. I’ll never wear one outside Scotland again.
My favourite place in Scotland is Kinloch Moidart on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, one of the most beautiful bits of Scotland. I spent some amazing Hogmanays there in my youth. It fulfi ls the idyll of Scotland; when I’m away it’s how I imagine my homeland. You only really know Scotland if you head north from Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Sunshine on Leith and Trainspotting are wildly different versions of Scotland but there’s a grain of truth in both of them. There has to be a kernel of credibility if the story is to be believed. The black humour of Trainspotting is very true to Scottish life, as is the exuberance of Sunshine on Leith.
I don’t have a favourite colour. People older than ten shouldn’t have a favourite colour.
Sunshine on Leith is the fi lm I’m proudest of. There’s a scene in which Peter Mullan tells his daughter to go to America – it’s more moving than anything else I’ve done. I have a daughter, and I’m keenly aware of Scotland’s history of emigration.
My last meal as a condemned man would be roast lamb. My perfect weekend would be a long Saturday family lunch of Vietnamese food, seeing a fi lm with my kids on Saturday night, and then Sunday roast lunch followed by going to the Arsenal at four o’clock – that’s as good as it gets.
The thing I miss most about Scotland is knowing my surroundings so well, and having that easy familiarity. The country’s smallness is a lovely thing. Its human scale and manageability is wonderful.
Latin. (n) ‘I believe’. A set of beliefs which infl uences the way you live.
Andrew Macdonald
The award-winning fi lm producer of Sunshine on Leith and Trainspotting on sibling rivalry, having Cockney children and the most generous person he has ever worked with
For middle-aged foodies, Edinburgh is heaven. I love eating out but like relaxed dining. I think Tom Kitchin’s restaurant is amazingly good and when I’m through in Glasgow I love to eat at Crabshakk and Cafe Gandolfi .
My grandfather [Emeric Pressburger] was a fi lm writer and producer, which was inspirational, so I wanted to be a fi lm director from the age of 16. I grew up in Scotland and went to a boarding school in the middle of nowhere, and no-one else I knew growing up wanted to work in fi lms, whereas when I go to my sons’ schools in London, all his friends want to be fi lmmakers.
Gregory’s Girl inspired me to work in fi lms. It’s still my favourite fi lm because it was the fi rst time that Scots made a fi lm about Scotland that wasn’t miserable; it was about things you recognised, full of jokes you’d laugh at, and streets you’d walked down. It was all that’s good in Scottish cinema.
The most generous person I ever worked with is Irvine Welsh. He trusted us to turn Trainspotting into a fi lm. Most people want control but he encouraged us to do our own thing. The fi rst time I met him I was terrifi ed: I thought we’d have to take drugs and drink a hundred pints, but he was the nicest guy.
All my children have Cockney and Islington accents but I insist they spend time in Scotland so they remember where they come from. Being a Scottish football fan can be very embarrassing. So can supporting Dumbarton.
People think sibling rivalry drives me as my brother Kevin is a fi lm director, but that wasn’t true until he became very successful. Now people say to me ‘how are you Kevin?’. Helen Mirren said exactly that to me the other day, which was tough. Kevin and I do look alike and work in the same business. Sunshine on Leith and Kevin’s fi lm How I Live Now came out on the same day so that’s the latest battleground. But he’s only got three boys and I’ve got four, so I’ve won that battle.
I’m more ambivalent about independence than my brother Kevin, who’s absolutely against it. I can see opportunities – ‘Ambassador Macdonald’ has a nice ring to it, as does ‘Andrew Macdonald, Minister for Culture’. It’s good for people to think big but independence would be far tougher than austerity.
Sunshine on Leith is available on DVD in the UK from 24 January.
WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK 39
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