Join in independence debate, Brian Cox tells US

HOLLYWOOD star Brian Cox has called on Americans to enter the Scottish independence debate.

Scot Brian Cox lives in New York and accepts he has no vote. Picture: Neil Hanna

The Dundee-born stage and screen actor, who lives in New York, said Scots who head across the Atlantic in search of a better life had “grown up with a sense of inferiority”.

The 67-year-old star of Manhunter, The Bourne Identity, Rob Roy and Braveheart called on Americans to support Scots in the “struggle” for separation from England.

He is one of the most high-profile cultural figures to back the independence cause, along with fellow Big Apple-based actor Alan Cumming.

In an interview published in New York, he said: “Why did your forebears go to the States? For a better life. The Scottish diaspora, the Irish diaspora – any diaspora – they went to America to escape something: pogroms, clearances, famine.

“These people wanted to have equality. And Scots haven’t had that – we’ve grown up with a sense of inferiority so that when we go to America we immediately discuss how positive everyone is. We love it, but we think, ‘Oh this isn’t right, where does our forelock tugging come in?’ ”

Currently appearing in BBC Scotland’s drama Shetland, he said in January: “I do spend a lot of time in Scotland. I grew up here and I was educated here.It’s my cultural heritage which is important to me, as much as anything else. So on the one hand I feel I have got something to offer about Scotland, but at the same time, as I don’t live in the country I accept the fact that I don’t have a vote.”