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One of the very, very exciting things I have found here in L.A. is that no one talks to you about being Scottish. Whereas, if you are in London and you are trying to put films together and be a film-maker, there is a kind of unspoken sense that, if you are Scottish, you have something to overcome or else you cannot really do that project.

I'm not really clear what the whole deal is with flags. I like my flag, but I wouldn't die for it. There's issues of identity, of course. That's going to always come in. I, for example, don't want to be called a 'North Britisher.' I want to be Scottish.

People in Scotland appreciate homegrown talent, but it's getting harder and harder to get films made in Britain.

It's not like there's no work in Scotland, but speak to any actor, and they'll tell you it's limited. So you have to go to London or Manchester to broaden your horizons.

There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.

If I was to put a little flag in everywhere I've been in the world, there'd be a lot of little flags.

I desperately want Scotland to be an independent country. I cannot, though, sit here and tell you definitively that it will happen, and that it will happen on this timescale, because I have to respect the opinion of the people of Scotland.

I love a bit of flag-waving.

I certainly feel I'm carrying the flag for Britain. I feel an honour in that but, at the same time, knowing my roots are in Africa, I'd like that to help motivate people from there. Even coming from a third world country, it is possible to get to the top of wherever they want to be.