Alan Cumming on cutting toxic people from his life, smoking, getting older and confronting strangers
Scottish acting legend Alan Cumming on changes in his personal life, confronting strangers, giving up smoking and getting older.
Scottish acting legend Alan Cumming chats to Bridget Cormack about getting older, his first big break and standing up to unreasonable people.
Not in my life anymore … are the people who were toxic and very bad for me. I eventually came to realise that I was repeating a pattern of trying to cure people and trying to make angry people not angry. And I realised that’s not possible. If people want to be less angry then they have to want to do that themselves. Hopefully I’m more vigilant about my propensity to indulge those people. Also, I don’t smoke cigarettes anymore. I obviously don’t smoke because it’s terrible for you and can kill you but the sensual pleasure of blowing out smoke, I love. I would be smoking right now if it weren’t terribly bad for your health. I don’t miss coughing and having a dry throat and all that stuff.
If someone cuts in front of me in traffic or at the supermarket I’m most likely to … confront them. I do not fear confrontation. I actually think it’s a really healthy thing to do and I’m not afraid of confronting people when I feel I need to, or I feel they have done something wrong. So when a stranger would do that to me I would say something like “hey, come on” and sort of just stand up to them. I think that’s what I would do in those situations. I would try not to be overly angry but just point out to them how unreasonable they’re being.
The thing people don’t tell you about getting older is … that you suddenly get weird nose hairs and eyebrow hairs that sort of stick out. They don’t tell you that suddenly you go to the barber and they say “should I do your ears as well?” (laughs). Also, the other thing they don’t tell you is that wisdom happens. You actually realise that you have learned things in life, and you have made decisions that are based on your experiences from the past and encountering the same thing again and again. I always say it’s like the same show but with different costumes. You suddenly realise, “oh I’ve got wisdom, I have experience and I’ve got things to share that might help people and I’m not the flibbertigibbet that I thought I was”.
Breakfast for me is … something that I do not have a regular pattern about. I normally try to do intermittent fasting. And so that tends to mean I don’t really eat breakfast in the sort of normal, bacon and eggs or porridge or whatever way. In the mornings, I have the juice of a lemon and a black americano. That gets me going. Then probably the first thing I eat is a vegan protein shake.
Being one of nine artistic directors of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival this year is making me … have FOMO because I am unfortunately unable to attend the festival in person. I would dearly love to be there to see Adelaide Tonight, which I have programmed. I adored it when I programmed it when I was artistic director of the 2021 Festival. I’ve known Mark Trevorrow since the 1980s and I love Willsy (Anne Wills) – I just had such fun with her. It’s so nice they’re coming back and I know they had such a blast doing that show.
On my bedside table there is … a glass of water, an inhaler, a little light and a clock that’s not plugged in. I’m trying to not have my phone in the bedroom, so I have this digital clock that I keep forgetting to plug in.
My first big break was … getting the part of Malcolm in Macbeth when I was still at drama school in Glasgow. That was huge. I felt like I had just won the golden ticket. Then I suppose the comedy deal I did with my friend Forbes Masson; getting on TV (with Victor and Barry) was a big break for us in the ’80s and that was what brought me first to Australia in 1989. I think in terms of my career in a larger way, a big break was a play (titled Conquest of the South Pole) that I did at the Traverse Theatre in 1988. It transferred to The Royal Court and so I made my West End debut when I was 23 and was nominated for my first Olivier Award. That was pretty huge.
Adelaide Cabaret Festival is held at Adelaide Festival Centre, June 9-24.
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