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.
ALAN CUMMINGIf the president of the country is not actually saying something, allowing equality to happen, how could you expect to counsel kids not to bully other kids?
More Alan Cumming Quotes
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Actors aren’t stupid, mostly, and if there’s a sensibility and an aesthetic that a director’s going for, if you’re aware of that too, you can do things to help that.
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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 think American actors are much more intimidated by Shakespeare. I actually want to do this Shakespeare play in New York, but I think it’s interesting that there’s this gaping hole in the repertoire in the American theater, which is Shakespeare.
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Usually, there’s a story I’ve told that leads up to why I’m singing the song. The whole concept of the show was about being authentic and connecting with these songs. The best way to do that was in a room with an audience and for people to listen to that.
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I think American actors are much more intimidated by Shakespeare.
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You could then, when you lay that as the groundwork, say, “Here I am. This is what I think. I come in peace.” Then you’re able to push out, to be able to talk about more things. And that’s been a really heartening thing about my life, actually.
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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 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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In my first year at drama school, I did this kids’ show called ‘Let’s See.
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I don’t feel I’m a compulsive person. I multitask. I’m really well-organised, and I have lots of people to help me.
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It’s exciting to be with really, really good people. Some people make you feel like you’ve got to up your game.
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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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Nowadays people don’t know how to handle it if all the ends aren’t tied up and they’re not told what to think in films. And if they’re challenged, they think it’s something wrong with the film.
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I was so scared of going back to the theatre after Hamlet. I didn’t know if I’d do a play again because I was afraid of the power of it.
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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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Working with good people is always good.
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Performing a one-man Macbeth feels like the greatest challenge.
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The thing with film and theater is that you always know the story so you can play certain cues in each scene with the knowledge that you know where the story’s going to end and how it’s going to go. But on television nobody knows what’s going to happen, even the writers.
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I actually find in America, there’s a slight snobbery about actors who go back and forth between big heavy dramas and popcorn fare. That always intrigues me, because that doesn’t exist in the same way in Britain. And I imagine it would be worse.
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So if I’m swirling around on some wires, talking to Fred Flintstone, I make it the funnest I can. I also want to be good at it. I don’t want to be a crap cartoon character. I want to be proud I’m a vitamin!
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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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Sometimes people do you a favour when they drop out of your life.
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He … knew, in that instant, that his life would not be an easy one-he was different, he looked different, he thought differently.
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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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I’d been depressed before, of course. But I’m talking about really depressed. Not just feeling a bit down or sad, a depression that has something to do with biorhythms. I’m talking about the kind of depressed that floats in upon you like a fog.
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Macbeth was the first play I ever read.
ALAN CUMMING