The huge movie Alan Cumming refused to star in: “Tell them to fuck right off”
The Harry Potter franchise is a unique phenomenon because of just how many great British actors the eight films managed to employ, where although the younger characters were all portrayed by then-unknown child stars, the broader supporting cast included some legendary names such as as Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes, and Alan Rickman, and thus, it’s pretty surprising that Alan Cumming has never appeared in one.
Cumming was the rare stage actor who found just as much success on the big screen, having already scored memorable roles in well-received films like GoldenEye and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, and given his propensity for eccentric, over-the-top characters, he seemed like a natural fit to play Gilderoy Lockhart, the pretentious Defence Against the Dark Arts professor who becomes a thorn in Harry’s side during the second instalment of the series.
However, when he was approached for the role, he adamantly told The Telegraph that he turned it down because they had been “blatantly lying” about the pay scale.
“They wanted me and Rupert Everett to do a screen test, and they said they couldn’t pay me more than a certain sum; they just didn’t have any more money in the budget,” Cumming claimed, “I had the same agent as Rupert, who, of course, they were going to pay more.”
Naturally, the actor was furious that he had been deceived, and was even more indignant that they had been “stupidly lying”, assuming that he wouldn’t pick up on the disparity. While Cumming had thought he could rest easy knowing that Everett, his friend, would get the role, it turned out to be yet another disappointment.
“I said, ‘Tell them to fuck right off’ and thought, well Rupert’s going to get the part,” he said, “They made him screen test, and I remember he brought his own wig, and then they fucking gave it to Kenneth Branagh.”
The decision to cast Branagh seemed a bit unusual when considering his track record up until Harry Potter, wherein he was already an Academy Award-nominated actor, writer, and director with no shortage of work in front of him, but he was still cast to play what was essentially a comedic relief role. Although Lockhart is introduced as a legendary wizard with extensive experience learned from many adventures, he’s revealed to be a fraud who flees in fear when the Hogwarts crisis gets too dangerous.
Even if it ended up being an insignificant part, it is disappointing that an actor of Cumming’s talents didn’t get the chance to appear in a blockbuster event that was viewed by countless fans.
Even though Harry Potter passed him by, he did find a different opportunity a year later when he appeared as the mutant Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, and unlike Lockhart, Nightcrawler was an important character who became an instant fan favourite, with recent news that Cumming would be reprising his role in Avengers: Doomsday being met with tremendous enthusiasm.
