Robert Carlyle can easily relate to his 'Trainspotting' character.

The award-winning actor starred as Begbie, a sociopathic character that featured in the Danny Boyle-directed movie, and has revealed he was a fusion of various people he knew earlier in his life.

Robert said: ''I grew up with a lot of people like Begbie. He's a mixture of three or four people I've known - all in jail.

''One guy used to dress deliberately provocatively so that people would stare at him and then he'd have a go at them; he lived for it.''

Robert starred alongside the likes of Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner and Jonny Lee Miller in the 1996 movie, and revealed he made a conscious decision to provoke his co-stars throughout filming.

He explained to Independent on Sunday newspaper: ''It was important for me to keep the other boys [on the 'Trainspotting' set] on edge a bit, so I had a rougher edge to my personality throughout filming: I'd call them all the names under the sun to wind them up before a scene - then the actor doesn't have to act!''