Brian Cox gave the audience an eye full.
The actor, 79, went commando under a kilt he was sporting at the Toronto International Film Festival during a post-screening Q&A on Thursday.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Cox, who was at the festival to promote his directorial debut “Glenrothan,” was alerted by a fan sitting in the front row that he was accidentally flashing them.
“Is it that bad?” he allegedly asked the front row audience member. “Or that good?” he quipped as the crowd laughed.
“You have to wear the kilt the proper way. The kilt is designed to make you cool and free. And it’s a f—ing wonderful freedom,” Cox shared before closing his knees together.
The Hollywood Reporter noted that the star explained how he wanted ‘Glenrothan” to tell a story, unlike some other filmmakers who just want to “cover their ass… or not.”
“What an unfortunate phrase. I’m really sorry about this,” Cox stated after realizing the irony of his comments. “I never thought I’d be in this position.”
Later during the Q&A, the crowd chimed in, shouting, “Your legs! Your legs!” when Cox would possibly flash them.
He teased back, “Whose idea was it to wear these f—ing kilts? Certainly not my idea. It was the producer’s idea. They always try to f–k you up, at the end of the day. They can be so vengeful sometimes.”
Cox called out the movie’s producer Neil Zeiger, who was in the front row.
“You’re probably wearing underpants,” Cox said to the producer, 75, who was also dressed in a kilt.
Zeiger nodded his head in confirmation.
“The kilt is about being free and easy, it’s hard not to wear underpants,” Cox added.
Cox, who stars as Sandy in “Glenrothan,” was joined at TIFF by his cast members Alexandra Shipp and Shirley Henderson.
Fellow co-stars Siobhan Redmond and Alan Cumming were not in attendance.
Per a synopsis, the project follows the story of “two brothers following a violent exchange with their father on the day of their mother’s funeral, the younger of the two left their Highland home for America. After forty years they reunite in the land of their birth.”
Cox’s directorial debut comes two years after the hit HBO series “Succession” came to an end. The actor starred on the show from 2018 to 2023.
In December, Cox spoke out about his former co-star Jeremy Strong’s method acting approach and how it impacted the series.
“He was wonderful to act with. I had no argument with Jeremy’s acting,” Cox told The Guardian at the time. “He would be an even better actor if he just got rid of that so there would be much more inclusiveness in what he did.”
Cox and Strong, 46, played father-son duo Logan and Kendall Roy on the drama. “Succession” won six Emmys during their fourth and final season, which aired between March 26 and May 28, 2023.
The Scottish native explained that a cast member who is in character all the time is “not good for the ensemble.”
“It creates hostility,” added Cox.
Although he admitted he never spoke with Strong “in the way [he] would like to have talked to him” about his method acting, sharing that “it’s a very emotive subject for people who follow the Strasberg line.”
Meanwhile, this wasn’t the first time Cox weighed in on Strong’s practices.
“He’s a very good actor. And the rest of the ensemble is all OK with this. But knowing a character and what the character does is only part of the skill set,” he told Town & Country in February 2023. “It’s f–king annoying. Don’t get me going on it.”
In 2021, Cox told the New Yorker: “I’ve worked with intense actors before. It’s a particularly American disease, I think, this inability to separate yourself off while you’re doing the job,” Cox said. “The result that Jeremy gets is always pretty tremendous. I just worry about what he does to himself. I worry about the crises he puts himself through in order to prepare.”
