Iain Robertson - Quotes

Quotes

In an interview for Official London Theatre, Robertson talked about meeting Gillies MacKinnon by accident on the directors first day of casting for Small Faces and the subsequent burden he might have been on the directors shoulders. "I think Gillies feels funny about it because he cast a 13 year old boy in a film who is now hitting 30 and still plugging away at it. There’s not a lot of money in theatre and it’s funny, he feels a kind of responsibility as if it’s his fault that I’m an actor! It’s the other way around, I’m very grateful to him that he took a punt on me. "

In 2006, Robertson explained to The Sunday Times why he was grateful to be cast in Romeo & Juliet at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, “That’s the nice thing about wee Lex from Small Faces playing Romeo,” he says in the luvvie voice. “You get the jakebaws in the audience.”'"

In an interview for TV Bomb in 2011, Robertson seemed to express disdain for the Scottish hard man image. Discussing his performance in The Hard Man he is quoted as saying "I know Boyle’s cousin Frankie Miller very well so I don’t buy into the whole “society made me what I am” because Jimmy Boyle spent all those years in prison whilst Frankie Miller spent those years travelling the world entertaining people. When Boyle was eleven he was breaking into shops whereas Frankie was sitting in his house writing a song called ‘I Can’t Change’ which was covered by Ray Charles, so you can’t blame society for decisions you made yourself.

The BBC press office released an interview, where Iain discussed his relationship with actress Dawn Steele who played Justine in Sea of Souls. "Sometimes I think the guest artists must come in and think we don't like each other, because we can be sat in make-up bickering away and it must look quite odd. We just have a great camaraderie, I suppose. And Bill is great because on screen and off, he's like a father figure that hovers over both of us and breaks up the fights."

Robertson discussed his decision to join the cast of Rab C. Nesbitt with The Scotsman. "One of the questions I had to ask myself, being from Govan, was: 'Is this offensive to where I grew up?'" says Robertson. "And the answer is no, quite the opposite, the show has a big heart, it captures the hope, aspirations and humour of working-class people. Gregor brings something to Nesbitt which takes him beyond this bottom-feeder alcoholic, you can't help but warm to him." He also added "It's an honour to be the one who sets up Rab C's for him. For a wee guy from Govan who was never interested in football, that's the equivalent of getting to play for the big team."