IT has been more than a decade in the making yet ask Angus Macfadyen about the toil that went into bringing his Robert the Bruce biopic to the big screen and the actor will tell you that, as far as he's concerned, the timing could not be more serendipitous.

"I am so glad that I didn't get the film made in 2007," he says, reflecting on the journey. "The timing right now with what is happening in the United Kingdom and Scotland, with the Brexit shambles and everything going on for independence, I feel like I couldn't have done it better myself."

Macfadyen, 55, first played Bruce in the 1995 film Braveheart. Afterwards, it was his ambition to make, not so much a sequel, but a film that continued the story and focused on Bruce's journey to becoming King of Scots.

"The experience of Braveheart was great, but I was a little disappointed that we weren't telling the rest of the story," he says. "For several years I went around talking to people and they were interested but somebody had to generate it."

Macfadyen first put pen to paper with a draft of Robert the Bruce almost 13 years ago. However, the financial backing needed to get the film made was not forthcoming. Macfadyen tore up that version and re-wrote the script for the movie currently in cinemas.

Robert the Bruce, in which Macfadyen plays the eponymous lead, was filmed between the rugged landscapes of Montana and Scottish locations such as Stirling, Eilean Donan Castle and the Quiraing in Skye.

It had its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 23. That date was no accident, marking the anniversary of the 1314 Battle of Bannockburn where Bruce triumphed over King Edward II of England.

The film is set during the winter of 1306 and 1307 when Bruce, after defeat at the Battle of Methven, is in exile. With little recorded historical detail during this period, Macfadyen imagined a story where Bruce found refuge with a family of crofters.

Getting the script into production was only the start. Ultimately, it proved a challenging shoot in the snowy, sub-zero conditions of a harsh Montana winter. "Week one, I didn't think we were going to get the film made," says Macfadyen. "I thought it was going to fold because on the first day we hit a blizzard and the road to the set disappeared.

"We couldn't get to work. We couldn't get up the mountains. Cars were slipping and sliding everywhere. We couldn't get the horses up. It was very tough for that first week. But somehow, we pulled through and we got the film made."

The plot deliberately sidesteps the epic battlefield scenes that some might expect. "There is really not an Englishman in sight," he says. "There was a divide and rule that worked well at that time against the Scots. I feel that is very timely right now. This country has always been divided but the level of venom which it is all reaching at this point seems to have torn it even further."

Is that why Macfadyen believes it is important to retell Bruce's story today? "I don't know if it is going to unite the clans," he says, wryly. "It is harking back to something we have been through for generations and centuries.

"A politician's speech can't do what a movie or a cultural event like a song or piece of music can. I give the example of Braveheart. When that film came out in 1995, people were in the cinemas crying and shouting: 'Freedom!' The SNP hadn't been able to stir up the passions like that in decades of political speeches."

READ MORE: Is this the new Braveheart? Film review of Robert the Bruce

To that end, Macfadyen credits Braveheart with helping stoke a catalyst for change. He cites the arrival of a devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999. "I think that film had a lot to do with that," he asserts. "The power and importance of cultural events, you can't dismiss it.

"That is why I feel it is important to try and get it into cinemas and continue the debate. I'm slightly in despair about the level of fury and anger in the country right now and how divided it is."

It is at this point we go tumbling down the rabbit hole into politics. More specifically the political landscape that exists in Scotland and the wider UK at the present time. I ask Macfadyen if he sees a resolution going forward?

"Yes – independence," he says. "People are arguing and are so entrenched in their own sides, but I can't understand how you can be Scottish and not want independence.

"It is a dream for me which I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. You didn't even almost dare to think about it when I was a kid in the 1980s. Yet now, here we are, so close to it. I just don't see how you can't not seize it and run with it – at least make your own mistakes."

Macfadyen is warming to his theme as he draws an analogy with the legend of Greyfriars Bobby, describing it as "this wee dog which was faithful to its drunken, abusive master". There is steel in his voice. "That, to me, is a symbol for what we have been going through with Westminster with the contempt and abuse from them. We are good and loyal like beaten dogs.

"That is what I remember from the 80s. There was no pride and a terrible sense of despair, fury and anger. You didn't think about independence. But the country has changed so much. There is hope on the horizon and we do control some decision-making, but it is time to go all the way. Every other country has. We are the last out the door. That is very polite of us, but it is time to go."

The eldest of two children, Macfadyen was born in Edinburgh. His father worked as a doctor with the World Health Organisation seeing the family travel across Africa as well as the Philippines, Singapore and France. In more recent times, the actor spent 20 years living in Tarskavaig on Skye. Home these days is the outskirts of Edinburgh, although Macfadyen spends his downtime in Panama where he enjoys the warm weather.

At university, Macfadyen briefly studied law, then international relations. Six weeks into the latter course he experienced an epiphany. "A voice told me: 'Don't carry on with this.' I literally stopped in the street and listened to the voice. It said: 'Just do something else.'"

He switched to English and French literature and language at Edinburgh University. It was this which led him into acting, something Macfadyen is grateful for now. "I was probably going to become a Labour politician since the SNP didn't really exist then," he reflects. "Then, in 2003, we were dragged by the Labour government into an illegal invasion of a country in the Middle East which has caused utter chaos and killed millions.

"I suddenly realised: 'Ah, that was the voice telling me [to change paths].' The people who stood up, had a conscience and tried to make a stand against it, they lost their jobs and were hounded out of civilised society. I admire them greatly, those who did try to stand up.

"The other ones who didn't lost their bloody souls at that moment. This is the problem with politicians. They spend all their time making these speeches and pretending to have integrity but all they are doing is toeing a party line. It is so disgusting."

We're coming full circle in our conversation now. It's almost time to go. But Macfadyen has a bit more to get off his chest first.

"I realised that you just don't know about destiny," he continues. "You think you are in control of your fate but, really, you are not. There are other powers at work. You don't get to see the full picture until decades later.

READ MORE: Robert the Bruce - the man, the myths, the mystery

"I had the same feeling with this film. I felt like Robert the Bruce lying down in this cave full of despair, doubt, giving up. What I feel, looking at how this has unfolded, is that the timing was far more immaculate for it to come out right now, than it was 10 years ago."

Robert the Bruce is in cinemas now