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.
I like the tragedies way more than the comedies because they’re so universal.
I don’t avoid anyone but I always think some people hate me.
Finally, the scariest thing about abuse of any shape or form, is, in my opinion, not the abuse itself, but that if it continues it can begin to feel commonplace and eventually acceptable.
It’s actually quite a good ethos for life: go into the unknown with truth, commitment, and openness and mostly you’ll be okay.
Performing a one-man Macbeth feels like the greatest challenge.
In my first year at drama school, I did this kids’ show called ‘Let’s See.
I’m quite good, though I say it myself, at making strangers feel at ease.
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.
With Urban Secrets, I just really liked the idea of wandering around chatting to people.
A sweaty Macbeth with blood on his arms coming in fresh from the battle doesn’t interest me.
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.
Sometimes people get really sniffy about the films you choose if you’ve done more dramatic projects or you’re classically trained.
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.
There are some days when you don’t feel like being Alan Cumming.
Pantomime is a big thing in the cultural calendar of my country, you know. So subtlety’s not my forte.
When there’s an adult person who’s scaring you, you grow up pretty quickly.
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.
When you’re on TV, you come into people’s homes. In theater and film, they go to you – to the temple of the cinema or theater. And it’s very different.
I’m not a fan of Twitter.
Most people will never know anything beyond what they see with their own two eyes.