Interview: Robbie Coltrane and Kevin McKidd discuss Brave

Disney-Pixar’s Brave finally opens on “home” turf this week, as the year’s most Scottish film lands in cinemas from Orkney to Galashiels.

For Scottish audiences, used to hearing the accent getting mangled on screen (Brigadoon anyone?), Disney-Pixars’ decision to use Scottish actors, including Robbie Coltrane and Kevin McKidd as Lords Dingwall and MacGuffin respectively, is a welcome one.

The Lords and their sons are seen to arrive at DunBroch Castle, home of Merida (Kelly Macdonald) and her parents, King Fergus (Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), just before things start to go very wrong in the Kingdom.

One thing immediately noticeable in Brave is that the actors haven’t been forced to tone down their accents, at least not too much.

“They were very tolerant of us putting in Scots words people won’t have heard before, but in the context of the settings you’d understand them,” says Coltrane. “Everybody instinctively knows what ‘jings, crivvens, help ma boab’ means, even if they’ve never heard it before.”

Unlike live action roles, the actors don’t resemble their characters in Brave. Was it odd for Coltrane to voice such a small character?

“The size of the body, throat and chest size have to be right or the public won’t accept it. The guys at Pixar know exactly how to do that. It was great fun to do, we’d try different things. All the production costs go into the animation so when you’re in the studio you have all the time in the world.”

“They make you do things in many permutations,” adds McKidd. “That gives them the option to use what they want.”
Read more at Reel Scotland

STV also have a video interview as do Movie.ie