From the Archives: Alan Cumming
"In every article, there's usually some clever yet tired pun on my name in the title. It's like, ‘Up and Cumming,' ‘The Cumming Man,' ‘Cumming to America,' ‘Cumming Up Roses.' I heard them all, none would surprise me now. I jump when there's a new one because it's like, ‘Oh, that's a good one!'"- Alan Cumming
From the Spice Girls to Stanley Kubrick, Alan Cumming has certainly worked with diverse collaborators. Add to that Minnie Driver in Circle of Friends, Gwyneth Paltrow in Emma, Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion, and a chimp in Buddy. Then top it off with his celebrated, Tony-award-winning role in Broadway's Cabaret and you realize that this Scotsman is not only electric but eclectic as well.
His endearing, sweet-natured personality is quite pronounced despite his professed jet lag. Dressed in baggy denim and a colorful, striped short-sleeved sweater, Cumming is a man who is given to resting his arms over his head, smiling and rolling off a bon mot or two. Currently in Manhattan to promote his role as the flamboyantly foppish Lord Rochester in Jake Scott's Plunkett and Macleane, Cumming holds court in New York's Regency Hotel. Next to him is a picture of Rochester, all powdered and ruffled. The first thing you notice about Cumming, aside from his charming Scottish brogue, is his hair, which is close-shaven and blond. "This is my own," he smiles. "I did this myself. No one else to blame."
Though Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller and Liv Tyler headline the true tale of two highwaymen, it is Cumming who steals the show with such wicked double entendres as, "Don't you just love a juicy cockfight?" "I wanted to show that world he came from that was quite decadent and debauched and brutal, but also there was a charm to him and a campiness," he says, explaining his take on Rochester. "And, on top of that, to try and get a warmth to him so that when he becomes involved with [Plunkett and Macleane], it's not a total surprise that he should go with the underdog."
As Rochester was based on a real person, Cumming consulted with the on-set advisor and did his own bit of research. "I read a wee bit of the poetry that he wrote, and he wrote a play called Sodom. He was a decadent lord who dabbled in the arts and died of syphilis." His eyes glint mischievously. "He dabbled in many things."
Cumming, who was trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and spent several unhappy seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company, doesn't adhere to the method of immersing oneself too deeply into the character. "I think it's important sometimes to have an awareness of what period or environment you're in," he concedes, "but I think if you go too far into yourself, then it's weird because you have to always remember you're actually communicating something to other people."
His own method is far less complicated: "I just let things seep in. I read the script and just kind of think about it for a period of time, then it just sort of comes out. Sometimes I work with people and I think, I see what you're doing. But it's actually detrimental to the finished piece, I think, because you have to let people see and hear what it is you're meaning to show to them. You're still always showing something, you can't just naturally be that person -- that would be silly."
Cumming also steals scenes -- from Tom Cruise no less -- in Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. "No fluids were exchanged," he laughs, referring to one of the rumors that emerged due to the film's tightly-guarded plot. Cumming initially dreaded the prospect of working with Kubrick and Cruise. "I had heard all these things. I'd heard that he was really scary and a dictatorial nightmare, but none of that was the case at all. He was really friendly and warm and funny, which I definitely didn't expect. That's Stanley I'm talking about," he laughs. "And Tom was really lovely as well. It was amazing because I found myself. . .standing with Tom Cruise and Stanley Kubrick and showing them Polaroids of me cuddling chimps [from Buddy]. It's weird but, at the time, it was so normal."
Things were not quite as enjoyable on Titus Andronicus and not only because Julie Taymor, fresh off her award-winning, avant-garde vision of Broadway's The Lion King, was undertaking one of Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedies as her debut feature. "It was a very, very difficult film to make anyway. It was really hard, not something that I'd necessarily like to repeat," he says. In the film, he and Anthony Hopkins battle for the throne and the hand of Tamora (Jessica Lange). The beheadings, rapes, mutilations, revenges and betrayals were nothing compared to the drama that played off-camera.
"It was in Italy and it was hysterical," Cumming recounts. "It was screaming from morning ‘til night, people getting fired everywhere and [shooting] going over months. That was quite difficult for me because I had a commitment in New York and nobody seemed to care," he laughs. At one point, Cumming walked into his rented apartment in Italy only to find his belongings gone and new tenants moved in -- no one had remembered to extend his lease when the shooting went over schedule.
"Just bad atmosphere on the set, misunderstandings. That does not make you want to give your best. So you had to gird your loins so much just to actually do the work. For me, playing a mad person, it's kind of appropriate but it wasn't the happiest experience. But it is a beautiful, beautiful film; I just don't go for that thing where it has to be awful to be something great. We all thought we were making a little independent film and we realized we were in Ben-Hur."
