Actress tells how scar almost cost stardom

THE actress and former pop star Claire Grogan nearly missed out on the role which set her on the road to stardom after being hit by glass in a Glasgow brawl, she has revealed.

Grogan, now 40, won the part of Susan in Gregory’s Girl, but the part was almost recast after she was caught up in a fight three months before filming. The director, Bill Forsyth, came under pressure from filmmakers to recast the then 17-year-old unknown because of the three-inch scar on her cheek.

But to get around the difficulty, the director used innovative camera angles to disguise her scar in the comedy, which also starred John Gordon Sinclair and Dee Hepburn.

Grogan, who has refused to have plastic surgery, said: “I was at a gig at what was then Glasgow Tech and a fight broke out. I went to leave and I ran into a flying broken glass. It nearly cut half my face off.

“It happened three months before I started filmiGregory’s Girl. Bill Forsyth was under a lot of pressure from the producers to recast me, but he didn’t. People don’t really notice it but in the film I am mostly shot from the other side.”

Following the success of Gregory’s Girl, Grogan had chart success with the Eighties pop group Altered Images.

In an interview on BBC Radio Scotland tomorrow, Grogan also reveals she was disappointed not to have had a role in the recent sequel.