Alan Cumming has already proved himself a master of the stage, page, and screen. He’s made us laugh and cry. When I got to interview him for his most recent film “Battle of the Sexes”, I shouldn’t have been surprised that it was my most memorable interview yet.
Throughout his illustrious career, Alan Cumming has worn many faces. Often lively and hilarious, brimming with wit, although he has shown touches of darkness from his troubled past as with his New York Times‘ bestseller “Not my Father’s Son”. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got the chance to sit with Cumming one-on-one to discuss his latest role in “Battle of the Sexes”. Even now the words that come to mind about the experience don’t seem to do it justice. All I can do is paint the scene and share our words.
I don’t think I’ve ever met someone as genuine or as comfortable in his skin as Alan Cumming. As I enter his room at the W Hotel, he’s lounging on his bed in a comfortable, yet chic ensemble of what can only be described as stylish sweatpants and a t-shirt bearing a skeleton mermaid. As soon as I’m in the room he sits up, introduces himself, and literally tells me to “hop on” the bed so we can talk. Within less than 30 seconds I’m sitting cross-legged on his bed speaking as though I’d known him for 10 years instead of 10 minutes. This is the power that Cumming has over a room and those inside it. He is, in a word, intoxicating.
Nicolette Acosta: I have to get my boring question out of the way first: What drew you to this project at first, besides the fact that it was well-written, and it’s an inspiring story?
Alan Cummings: I think the fact that this character is such a great guide, and guides Billie Jean sort of in her lesbionic journey. And I love the fact that he was a very positive, and sort of hopeful takeaway about being gay in those times. And I really liked the fact that it ended in a very positive way, and he was a very positive influence to her. That and it was sort of a fun project to be a part of because it’s about things that I really believe in… It was fun because we shot it in LA, last spring, and I just finished filming The Good Wife, and the next morning I left…I mean I wasn’t even there for the wrap. On my last day, I had to go the next day. So I just came here and sort of had a very lovely sort of decompress after that. And my dog – it was a very dog set… Lots of dogs…
NA: Really? That makes me so happy!
AC: Yeah! Emma had hers, Jessica has one, Natalie had a dog, I had Lala, my dog.
NA: Did all the dogs get along? No dog drama?
AC: No, there was actually no drama at all really. Actually none. It was lovely… It was the first time I’d spent time in LA for a long time, and I saw lots of people I hadn’t seen in a while. Cause doing The Good Wife was like 6 years of being- hardly ever coming to LA, just for awards and stuff like that, so it was nice to spend a month here.
NA: At the end of the movie, you and Emma have this really touching, wonderful, guidance speech almost, optimistic, but about how you still have to play the dance, play the part. Where we are right now, How much of that do you think holds true in 2017?
AC: It’s interesting, I thought the dance was more about expressing some joy of what just happened… I just thought it was like, you have to go and dance, like live life, you know enjoy things…
NA: You can’t get tripped up on the steps, all you can do is go for it?
AC: Yeah, and don’t miss out on having a good time on the way too, but also still obviously, very difficult to, or for those inherent roles for people to be open and things. It’s all these things. It’s the gay thing, it’s the pay inequality, sexism, blah blah blah… We live in a world that’s sort of like the last hurrah for old white guys so that’s why these things are there. And it takes people like Billie Jean King who are willing to strike out and put their necks on the line to make a point. The other thing I thought was weird was that people were saying, ‘Isn’t it great that Emma got paid the same as Steve in this film? Pay equality”, well big f*cking deal, she should get more surely, to me –
NA: Shouldn’t she? She’s in it more…
AC: She’s in it more, she’s the headliner-
NA: And she’s an Oscar winner…
AC: …All that stuff, and yet were still supposed to think, ‘Oh isn’t that great!’ Isn’t that fascinating? I think it’s great, I think it’s really amazing this is actually being talked about so much, and part of me thinks that all of society talks about it, and cause a movie star is doing it… but the idea of, ‘Yeah why don’t we get?’
NA: Do you feel like its talked about it almost too much, and not enough is done? As Billie Jean was saying (in the press conference), Larry had the bylaws there because if you just talk about it, then you have to meet again, then you have to –do you think it’s too much talking and being happy when we reach the minimum? Versus people having action happen?
AC: Yeah, and also in certain situations it’s easy to go, ‘Well you know, oh shut up— Jennifer Lawrence with you $7 million—’
NA: Just be happy with what you have…
AC: Yeah, but that’s not the point, you have to look at the bigger picture. It’s not just about money, it’s about how people are perceived, and what value is placed on you, and if you’re not a particular it means you have less value. It’s like, I always think it’s funny when your agents do deals for you, there’s a thing of a humiliation level, a feeling— if I don’t get, if it goes below that, I can’t take it. Because I don’t want to go to work bitter. And I think you have to draw the land in the sand for yourself, value yourself, I think I’m worth this much…
NA: Is that a conversation you have to have with your agents like, hey just so you know, this is our line….
AC: Yeah, yeah, yeah… And also what’s really good is you have to be willing to lose it… You have to be willing to lose the project, by doing that you give yourself, you give your agents lots of power actually. Mhm, therefore they can be bolder. But that’s the thing, you get to the same analogy with women’s rights and pay equality you have to be able to walk away from it.
NA: Wow, I really love that… How much was Billie Jean on set? She’s a firecracker… I aspire to be that, including the fashion– it’s amazing…
AC: I love her, much respect with her jackets and matching specs, so good… She wasn’t there when I was there. I’d seen her actually, just the week before I got asked to be in this film, she came to my house for dinner, and- It was actually Billie Jean, Ilana, me and my husband, and Rufus Wainwright and his husband, the gayest dinner party. Gay culture will be decimated if a bomb went off in the apartment…. So I didn’t see her then (on set), only until after…she had a healthy distance. It must be a very fascinating thing, to have your life presented, and sort of speculated about in the way that this film, we don’t know what was said to each other in those rooms and all that stuff, and it’s still a drama…
NA: And that’s another question, how much influence did she have in the writing? In the rooms, was she like, “I remember this is basically what happened…”?
AC: I don’t know actually, but I sense, my perception of it is she didn’t really have very much… I think there are certain things she wanted to make sure went in it, and then she gave them three, and also Simon was in London, and he wrote it… So I think it was that distance…
NA: It has to be so scary to just give someone your life and be like here you go-
AC: Yeah, but she’s got balls of steel that woman… And also today in the line, she looked down at my crouch, I’m there with baggy pants and she goes, ‘What are you packing there?’ I go, ‘Billie Jean!’ I was like, oh my God! You’re hitting on me in a corridor! And actually, I went, ‘No complaints so far…’
NA: One of my favorite moments in the film, is when Emma is talking to Marilyn, she says, ‘When you’re the best, you can change, you can make people listen’… How does that resonate with your career?—I mean you’ve done film, TV, you’ve done stage, Broadway, London, directed, written, so…
AC: Well I think, you have some power, you have a voice. By being successful in certain fields you have a voice and you can actually make, you can…
NA: Was that your inspiration to be the best?
AC: No, it wasn’t… I just wanted to be good at what I do, and to be stimulated and challenged, and have fun. But on the way to that, one of the downsides is then you have to deal with all… I remember once, I was at this pizza place in Province Town, this man was like taking a photo of me, and I just went, ‘Oh come on, stop it, I can see you, just take the photo,’ and he went, ‘Oh come on you signed up for this.’ And I went, ‘No, I didn’t sign up to have a creepy man take pictures of me while eating a slice of pizza at 2:00 AM.’ And I think it is a sort of misconception that if you become an actor you sort of think, I have to do that… And certainly when you start out, I don’t think I ever thought weird things like that could happen, so there is a downside in that way… But the positive side is that you can affect people, you can affect change because you have a voice and people listen to you. People if they think you are cool, and a good person, they’ll –
NA: What you say matters…
AC: Yes, and that’s really worth it for that.
NA: So obviously you’ve been a huge LGBTQ activist, what else are you looking to change or put your voice to?
AC: What else? I mean I’m very worried about people getting, sort of Trump boredom, that there is a barrage of awfulness that we get inured to it, we get desensitized—I can’t believe it we got shards full of stuff, and you see an article about him and no one mentions, for f*ck sake, this man was just supporting white supremacists a week ago. So that normalizing of him I find to be scary, and also, in one of those twitter groups about collective things, trying to get messages out, one woman said, ‘Its not just resist, its persist.’ And we just have to keep going, go for the long haul.
NA: It’s a marathon…
AC: Yeah, alas. But in other areas, you know I have lots of things I can never get on my goat…
NA: Wait, what’s your top five biggest pet peeves, now I’m just curious…
AC: Circumcision. Furious about circumcision. I’m an intactivist . You know cause we have the foreskin for a reason, and people just lop them off and people in this country, don’t even, sometimes aren’t even asked… And it can go wrong, it’s very traumatic, and also the thing that got me was when I first came to this country, and a I showed people my penis, they thought I was the weirdo. They went, “what’s that?” So that’s one of my big things. Also, I work with PETA, there’s a chimp I was in a film with in 1996, he was languishing in this awful, discussing, so called sanctuary in Missouri, with ten other chimps, and its this ladies, and its awful. When they went to, the last time the inspectors went, the smell of ammonia from the urine was so overpowering, they couldn’t get into the building. And this poor chimp was there, that I knew, so I’m trying to get him out –all of them to the sanctuary in Florida. So you know stuff like that, it’s a busy time.
NA: Lots of stuff in that schedule, then you got your husband, then you got your dog, it’s a full life.
AC: Yes! And my club just opened, my bar just opened this week.
NA: How was the opening?
AC: It was fun! Actually the proper opening was last night, I couldn’t go. But all week we’ve been having little parties, and real people have been coming since Wednesday, it’s really fun. It’s performances, and it’s people singing songs, and dancing, it’s a lot of fun.
NA: I’m going to touch back on question that was asked during the press conference, about actresses unionizing. How much do you think actors in Hollywood can actually talk about that in public, without getting blacklisted?
AC: Oh, gosh I don’t know. I think it has to be solidarity. If a big number of high profile movie stars, women, did that. It wouldn’t be a choice, they’d have to. It’s awful because in Hollywood you have a voice because people are so famous, you always get paid a shitload of money, so actually it’s hard to be taken seriously when you are complaining about the fact that oh I’m only making so many millions-
NA: When Everyone else is trying to make a car payment…
AC: Exactly, and I don’t know I think, Hollywood is a patriarchy. And women are treated really badly, and look at the way women roles just disappear age 40 or whatever…
NA: Unless you are Betty White…
AC: Betty White or Meryl Streep. And why is that? It’s not like women disappear in life, they are just not represented. I find that fascinating.
Watch Cumming fight for equal rights in “Battle of the Sexes” opening nationwide Friday, September 22.
Nicolette Acosta is an actress and journalist based in Los Angeles who loves dogs, the smell of old books and feminism. Follow her on Instagram @Nicolettepilar
