You do get really exhausted doing films. You work such long hours, and after a while, things can get out of perspective, just like if anyone’s tired, things get on top of them.
ALAN CUMMINGFor example, Americans seem reluctant to take on Shakespeare because you don’t think you’re very good at it – which is rubbish. You’re missing out here.
More Alan Cumming Quotes
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I come more to Scotland than I ever used to, so I feel more connected to it, more part of the zeitgeist. You know when you realize you have a choice and I’m choosing my homeland. It’s funny: when you get older these things creep up to you.
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With Urban Secrets, I just really liked the idea of wandering around chatting to people.
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My mum always told me I was precious, while my dad always told me I was worthless. I think that’s a good grounding for a balanced life.
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It’s interesting, for me sappy means sentimental and something that gets you in your heart, gets you emotional. That’s what I mean. Also, of course, it means that I’m slightly setting up the audience that there’s a bit of fun involved, as well.
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If you are a cabaret artist and you are mostly singing other people’s songs, you’re asking them to rethink a song, listen to it in a different way. The most impact you can have while asking them to re-listen to a song is if it’s a song they know very well.
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You’ll see Dame Judi Dench in a Bond film, in Shakespeare and then starring in her own sitcom. You never see that here with Meryl Streep.
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If they’re not seeing that their society sees gay people as equals, how could you tell them what they’re doing is wrong?
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I had to be a grown-up when I should have been a little boy, and now that I’m a grown-up my little-boyness has exploded out of me. I’ve lived my life backwards.
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You should *have* an experience; it shouldn’t just *be* an experience.
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With all this stuff going on, with the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” and things like that, we are second-class citizens, definitely.
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It’s about how you exist as a person in the world, and the idea that your work is more important than you as a person is a horrible, horrible message.
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When there’s an adult person who’s scaring you, you grow up pretty quickly.
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Often for me, if I hear a song I know, it clicks for me and I hear it in a different way and I think, “I could sing that song. I’ve got something to say about that song. Wanting to connect with an audience and wanting them to rethink songs.
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Sometimes people get really sniffy about the films you choose if you’ve done more dramatic projects or you’re classically trained.
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I’m quite good, though I say it myself, at making strangers feel at ease.
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You can feel it coming and you can see where it is going to take you but you are powerless, utterly powerless to stop it. I know now.
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Performing a one-man Macbeth feels like the greatest challenge.
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I usually can find a way to do a character to make it real and work. But sometimes it’s a struggle sustaining that, because there’s such a level of personal involvement and personal, physical, and emotional distraughtness.
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So the experts think we could have an AIDS-free generation in Africa by 2015, even if the mothers are positive.
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I was horrified when Richard Chamberlain and Rupert Everett said gay actors should stay in the closet. They were saying to people that they should live a lie and not be liberated, to live in fear of being found out.
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Kids are more genuine. When they come up and want to talk to you, they don’t have an agenda. It’s more endearing and less piercing to your aura.
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It’s really rare for film directors to be that interested in things other than themselves.
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A sweaty Macbeth with blood on his arms coming in fresh from the battle doesn’t interest me.
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Working with good people is always good.
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I don’t avoid anyone but I always think some people hate me.
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It’s hardly ever done, compared to how often it’s done in other companies, not just Britain. Someone from the Roundabout Theater Company – I said, “You never do Shakespeare.” And he said, “Yes, we’re not very good at it.” And I thought, “What a terrible thing to say.”.
ALAN CUMMING