ELGIN-born actor Kevin McKidd has revealed he went for drinks with First Minister Alex Salmond the night before the premiere of the new Disney Pixar film Brave in Los Angeles.

Speaking about the night out ahead of tonight's European premiere of the film in Edinburgh, McKidd called the experience "quite surreal".

The actor, who lives in Los Angeles and stars in hit US drama Grey's Anatomy, voices father and son Lord MacGuffin and Young MacGuffin in the new movie.

He said: "Alex and his posse of folk wanted to meet up for a drink, so I said 'Maybe you should come to my pal's pub'."

McKidd said the pub was actually a built-in bar in the basement of his friend and fellow actor Dan Conroy's home. He added: "I think they were a bit trepidatious, but they came in and saw what it was and we had a brilliant night. It was fun to show Alex, it was a good laugh."

As for what the pair discussed, McKidd said: "There were a couple of beers going on. We talked about the film a little bit – how nice it is and how good it is for Scotland."

The actor, who is back in the UK with his family for tonight's premiere, which will close the Edinburgh International Film Festival, said they would be heading back to Elgin afterwards to see his parents.

He added: "We always stay at my mum and dad's house and my kids really enjoy being back with their granny and grandad and getting to reconnect with their Scottish background. They love sitting at their house, eating biscuits and getting spoiled.

"My kids saw Brave at the premiere in Los Angeles and they loved it. We were thinking about maybe not going to Scotland this year but after the premiere, they were like 'We want to go to Scotland, we want to go to Scotland.'

"It got their Celtic blood boiling seeing the film."