The reason why Alan Cumming told ‘Harry Potter’ producers to “f**k off”
You may have never heard the name Alan Cumming, but you will definitely recognise the face, with the British actor having played a number of high-profile roles. Though he has worked with the likes of Stanley Kubrick, Martin Campbell, Stephen Kay and Bryan Singer, Cumming will be forever known as Fegan Floop, the eccentric villain of Robert Rodriguez’s celebrated 2001 movie, Spy Kids.
Fans might also recognise the actor from the early Marvel success X-Men 2, where Cumming starred alongside the likes of Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and Brian Cox in the film that would help popularise superhero cinema. The sequel to the original 2000 movie is often considered to be one of the very best X-Men movies, making use of the series’ wide range of characters, including Cummings’ own Nightcrawler.
The success of the movie came at the same time as Warner Bros’ Harry Potter franchise was taking off, with Cumming being approached by producers of the series who were interested in casting him as Hogwarts’ Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Gilderoy Lockhart in 2002s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Cumming eventually lost out to Sir Kenneth Branagh for the iconic role, but the actor wasn’t at all bothered, telling The Telegraph, “I didn’t turn it down, I told them to f**k off”.
Explaining his frustrations, he went on to clarify, “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. And I had the same agent as Rupert, who of course they were going to pay more. Blatantly lying, stupidly lying, as well”.
Fuming at his lack of equal pay, Cumming assumed that Everett would get the part, so was happy to drop out of contention. As the actor recalls, however, “They made him screen test, and I remember he brought his own wig. And then they f—ing gave it to Kenneth Branagh, came out of the shadows”.
Unfortunately for Cumming, Branagh went on to become one of the many iconic cast members to make up the mighty ensemble of the Harry Potter franchise, a series that has concreted itself within the legacy of 21st-century filmmaking. Helping to make The Chamber of Secrets the charming, family-friendly horror movie that it is, maybe it was for the best that Cumming lost out on the role.
Rumblings of the franchises’ reawakening have been heard in recent years, with Warner Bros desperate to get the series back on track after the tragedy of the Fantastic Beasts movies. With so many avenues the future of the franchise could go, executives at the company must be desperately trying to piece together the roadmap for the future of Harry Potter, especially as fans only have the video game Hogwarts Legacy to look forward to in 2023.
If you want our two sickles, we’d love to see a movie all about the ‘Order of the Phoenix’. Think about it, Warner Bros, the story is already written, after all.
