Star Cumming back to Scotland for Filth

Published on Saturday 19 March 2011 09:59

HE'S played a Bond villain, starred on Broadway and been nominated for an Emmy. Now the Scots-born Hollywood actor Alan Cumming is hoping to star in the screen adaptation of the Irvine Welsh novel Filth.

The film, which is in the process of securing financing, is expected to go into pre-production later this year.

In an exclusive interview with Scotland on Sunday, Cumming, 46, also revealed that he had been approached by Glasgow City Council about performing his successful cabaret act, I Bought A Blue Car Today, in the city next year, and had decided to rewrite it to turn the show into a retrospective of his entire career.

"I thought about it and realised that come 2012 it will be the 30th anniversary of me coming to live in Glasgow to go to drama school," said the actor, who grew up in the Perthshire town of Aberfeldy.

"The show I've been doing was around me becoming an American citizen, so I thought it might be nice to do one that was looking at those 30 years and my time in Scotland, and what those 30 years have been like since I was back in Glasgow."

Cumming, who became an American citizen in 2008, added that the original show, which he took to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year and has toured extensively in the US, had changed since he first started performing it.

"I think to bring that part to an end and have a whole new batch of songs would be great. The time scale of doing it next year in Glasgow would also be good for that. I'm quite excited about it."

Cumming, who has had a long and prolific career in Hollywood and has appeared in movies such as Eyes Wide Shut and GoldenEye and even has his own perfume - called Cumming - joked that it would be "a lot to cover". "It's going to be like the Ring Cycle," he said. He is also a series regular on the US TV hit show The Good Wife.

Cumming will shortly appear on British TV screens for the first time in 15 years in The Runaway, a drama series on Sky1 adapted from the novel by Martina Cole, where he plays a 1960s transvestite in London's gangland opposite fellow Scot Ken Stott, who plays a gay nightclub owner.

"Three years ago I made a conscious decision to work more in Britain," he said. "It's not that I've actively avoided being on TV here, it's just that it came at the right moment and I really liked it. I felt I could bring some honesty to the role (of a drag queen] and not just be a clich of that type of person."

The actor, who lives in New York with Grant Shaffer, an illustrator he married in 2007, said he was considering buying a flat in Edinburgh, and he hopes to be in the city in the autumn to work on Filth.

He also revealed he had been approached by a number of Scottish political parties keen to secure his support in the upcoming Scottish elections, although he declined to reveal which ones."The thing about being a well-known Scot is that people look to procure your support for political causes," he said, adding, "Their hearts are all in the right place."

Cumming became a US citizen three years ago after revealing he had been "inspired" by Barack Obama, who was running for election at the time.

"I am still inspired by him but I think he lost his way a little bit," he said. "This is probably his best time coming up, because in a way he's got nothing and everything to lose."