Brian Cox: I once accidentally shot someone with a blank round

5 October 2020

Brian Cox once accidentally shot an actor in the face with a blank round.

Brian Cox

The ‘Succession’ star used to work as the stage manager at Scotland’s Dundee Rep Theatre, and has said he once accidentally burnt a man’s nose when he was being handed a prop gun that was loaded with blank rounds.

He recalled: “I was the worst stage manager, I was hopeless, and there was one horrific incident. The worst incident was I burned this guy’s nose. He was teaching me how to hand a gun to somebody, because in those days we used to have pistols that fired blanks.

"He said, ‘You never hand the gun to somebody with the barrel pointing at them and you hand it with the chamber open.’

“So I’m taking the gun as he’s handing it to me and then I hit the trigger and it went bang. It went black and he had a burnt nose.”

And despite injuring the man, Brian didn’t lose his job as a result of the incident.

He added during an appearance on the ‘Great Scot!’ podcast: “I still had a job after it. They blamed it on themselves for not instructing me properly.”

Meanwhile, Brian recently spoke about experiencing a new lease of life in his older years, as he began smoking marijuana and riding a motorcycle after he turned 50.

He said: "I didn't smoke marijuana until I was 50. That was the first time I took it. And I haven't stopped.

“It's like motorcycle riding. It's sort of wasted on the young ... I came to motorcycle riding when I was quite old. And the same with drugs. I was very ambitious. I didn't want anything to get in the way and I was very suspicious.

“It was when I got to 50 and I thought, 'God I need a rest. I need a break. I need something that will turn me off at the end of the day.' And of course, that's perfect. And it's something I still indulge in. I now have medical marijuana because I'm of such an age that I can do that.”

The actor also said he won’t be retiring any time soon, as he doesn’t want a “dusty death”.

He explained: “I think slowing down is the way to a dusty death. I think you go until you drop. I don't want to slow down. I think we just go on. As long as we're not avaricious about it, as long as we're not destroying the world ... I feel good."