James Cosmo reckons his career is going into reverse – and finally, in his 70s, he’s doing a romcom.
The star, 75, is best known for roles in Braveheart and Game of Thrones but has been cast as the romantic lead in new film My Sailor, My Love.
After decades of playing cops, hardmen and warriors, the Clydebank-born actor steps forward as Scotland’s newest heart-throb.
In a Zoom call he roared: “Matthew McConaughey started off doing romcoms then did great work like True Detective and Interstellar.
“Well, I’m going in reverse. I’ve murdered people, stabbed people, ridden horses and done all these mad things – and now I’m in a romcom.
“I reckon the end of my career will be me as a romantic lead.”
After his first role – in Dr Finlay’s Casebook in 1965 – James played a multitude of TV cops in the 70s and 80s in the likes of Softly Softly and The Sweeney before his big break as Campbell in Mel Gibson’s 1995 epic Braveheart.
Since then, he has become something of a national treasure.
Despite all the raunchy sex scenes in Game of Thrones, in the first three series his Night Watch commander character Jeor Mormont had taken a vow of celibacy with his men and James only got his first on-screen kiss as Farder Coram in 2019’s first series of His Dark Materials.
But now he goes full hog in My Sailor, My Love, which gets its UK premiere on Friday at Glasgow Film Festival.
Helmed by Finnish director Klaus Härö, James plays reclusive old sea dog Howard, who lives alone on Achill Island off County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland.
Worried about her dad, his daughter Grace, played by Catherine Walker, hires a caretaker, Annie (Bríd Brennan), and, despite his grumpiness, they fall in love.
James said: “It’s a nice change of pace from what people know me for. It’s a very thought-provoking and measured film.”
Billed as a “grey romance”, James – who has been with his wife Anne Harris, the mother of his two sons Ethan and Findlay, for more than 30 years and got married to her in 2000 – says it’s a film with an important message.
“It’s pertinent today as people are living longer and leading more active lives. Their children are middle-aged,” he said.
“A lot of dynamics have changed. Yes, someone who is in later life can find happiness, and love but that doesn’t come without problems as far as the rest of his family go.
“I’m sure this story will reverberate with an awful lot of people because it must be a very strange thing to look at your father with another woman.
“In their [a daughter’s] eyes he’s too old to be doing this and shouldn’t be. It changes the daughter/father dynamic. He’s not reliant on his daughter any more, he’s in love with another woman. He’s out loving life, having a great time. In some ways, it shows the problems that can bring but it’s also hugely uplifting.”
There is one wonderfully awkward bed scene and James laughed: “You can feel his toes curling.”
Luckily, he has no relationship worries. He said: “I fell in love with my wife 32 years ago and we’ve been very happily married since. I can’t see that changing”
James, who also starred in ITV drama The Bay, has fond memories of spending a week in Ireland in the summer of 2021 with the director, Bríd and Catherine before filming began.
Every morning the four would have breakfast at Gielty’s bar and restaurant on Achill Island. He said: “Their soda bread was still warm out the oven and, dear God, I could eat a loaf of this thing with butter. I was so insistent they said, ‘Come tomorrow and we are going to show you how to make it’. And I’m still making it now.”
Food is also on his mind as he prepares to drive from his home in Surrey to Glasgow for the premiere.
He said: “Every time I come up I have to drive because I’m so laden down with Scotch pies, square sausage, black pudding and Irn-Bru.
“One of the things expats miss most is Scotch pies. Sometimes it is the only thing you want.”
He was dreaming of a Scotch pie while filming the third series of Amazon Prime’s Jack Ryan, which stars John Krasinski in the title role.
James played Luca, a Russian who is involved in a plot to restore the Soviet empire, and scenes were filmed in Budapest during the pandemic.
He said: “The first day I arrived in Budapest I was excited about starting. They picked me up and my driver said, ‘We have to go to the wardrobe department to get you fitted for your suits then I’ll take you to your hotel.’”
James got measured up, met the costume designer and 40 minutes later was back in the car. He arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel but when he got to his room, the phone rang.
He added: “I answered and this voice told me someone had tested positive in the wardrobe department and I was confined to my room for two weeks. I’d only got there and the door was locked. I felt like Jimmy Boyle.
“Once you’ve been through the room service menu about three times, you would kill for a square sausage.
“Then I got Covid and that was me for another 10 days.”
James continues to get picked for parts. As well as playing Cardinal Richelieu in the upcoming film adaptation of The Three Musketeers, he’s also in BBC drama Nightsleeper – a real-time suspense thriller set on the Glasgow to London sleeper train.
In addition, he appears in ITVX’s Six Four – a Scottish-based thriller with Trainspotting co-star Kevin McKidd. It will stream from March 30.
James said: “I thought people would have got fed up with me but I’m going to keep on working as long as the good lord allows me to.”
● The UK premiere of My Sailor, My Love will be at Glasgow Film Festival on Friday. It’s in cinemas from March 10.
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