A child star of Braveheart has told how she burst into tears when Mel Gibson’s character was hung, drawn and quartered as she thought it was real.
Mhairi Calvey played five-year-old Murran, the younger version of Wallace’s lover, and had to be consoled by her mum after seeing the scenes.
The actress, now 33, said: “I gave the thistle to the young William Wallace at the funeral of his father and his brother.
“Mel Gibson was a fantastic director. He was absolutely lovely and he would carry me around the set as if I was his child and he really looked after me.
“When I watched the scene where William Wallace is hung, drawn and quartered I cried because I believed they had actually killed Mel Gibson.
“My mum had to explain to me that it wasn’t that at all.
“I remember the whole experience of making Braveheart as though it was yesterday because it was such a big thing to happen when you are so young.”
Mhairi returned to acting in 2019’s Robert The Bruce.
She is to play the lead in Fear The Invisible Man with David Hayman and is to launch a new film festival in Scotland
Now a director, she is part of the Scotland International Festival of Cinema this year which is attracting big names. Mhairi has teamed up with a panel of judges, including Angus Macfadyen and Fatal Attraction star Anne Archer.
She said: “I only started back acting again in 2016 professionally, so it’s not that long ago. The hard thing about coming back is that everybody thinks you have been there and done it.
“Actually, it’s not the case. I was five years old and happened to have got into a film.
“I wasn’t a professional actor at the time. I then went and had a normal life and a childhood.”
But her experience on Braveheart in 1995 has never left her.
She said: “Mel has been an inspiration to me and looked after the cast of Braveheart very well.
“He was directing, producing and starring and would have been juggling an awful lot.
“Even now people say to me, ‘Oh my God! You were in that film’ and want to talk to me about it which makes me realise what a big movie it was back then.
“It stayed with me and is definitely the reason I’m in the industry now and involved in the festival.”
Looking ahead to that festival, she said: “People are coming from all over the world and a lot of Scottish talent is included.”
The Scotland International Festival of Cinema is at the Eastgate theatre in Peebles from April 19 to 24.
