Majestic Gillian launches film festival

Evening Standard10 April 2012

A heavily pregnant Gillian Anderson helped launch the London Film Festival with the premiere of her The Last King Of Scotland.

Former X-Files actress Anderson stars alongside Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy, who were also at the premiere in Leicester Square.

US star Whitaker has been tipped for an Oscar for his performance as the brutal Ugandan dictator who seized power in a military coup in 1971. He said: "Making the film was an unbelievable experience."

McAvoy, who plays Dr Garrigan, said: "What appealed to me was that I would be playing a westerner in Africa who wasn't a hero but was self-serving, arrogant and selfish; as we have been in Africa and all over the world.

"Filming in Uganda affected me and I'm going back in January to raise awareness for the work of the Red Cross."

Director Kevin Macdonald won an Oscar for Touching The Void, a drama documentary about two climbers.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in