Despite an hour and a half of sitting on a hard floor in a sea of about 100 students, playing “6 degrees from Alan Cumming” to pass the time, virtually everyone who came to see Scottish actor Alan Cumming speak at the Silliman College Master’s Tea yesterday waited with virtually no complaints.
Cumming, who is most known for his roles in “The Anniversary Party,” “Cabaret” and “A Circle of Friends,” said he had been held up by the traffic and rain, but was still greeted with enthusiastic applause when he entered the room. During the course of the Yale Film Society-sponsored tea, which functioned as a question and answer session, he discussed everything from his work in “The Anniversary Party” to his perception of film versus theater acting.
He began by explaining how he goes about selecting roles.
“It’s just something [about the character] that connects with you,” he said. “I tend never to do films where there’s another part I would rather have played.”
But his motives for playing particular characters are not always so poetic.
“Sometimes, you know — and often — decisions to make films have to do with the money, which gives me the freedom to do other things — and my life’s expensive,” Cumming joked.
Cumming’s almost disheveled, unshaven appearance and friendly demeanor were remarked on as being surprisingly down-to-earth in comparison to his many on-screen personas. Cumming seemed to have no regrets about the disparity.
“I enjoy playing with the public’s perception of who I am,” he said. “People are going to think whatever, so you might as well do what you want.”
Most of the audience’s questions, however, were more focused on his diverse experience in both theater and film.
“The camera is a really exciting thing to act to. You’re much more focused,” he said. “In a way it’s much more self-conscious than the theater — especially when the camera is up your nose.”
Cumming said he prepares less for film than for theater.
“For film, it’s much more instinctive,” he said, though he made it clear that this is not true for everyone. He added that Jennifer Jason Leigh, his co-star in “The Anniversary Party,” prepares fastidiously for her roles in films.
Cumming and Leigh co-wrote and co-directed “The Anniversary Party” as well.
“We had worked together in “Cabaret,” and our characters didn’t really work together, so we wanted to do something together as actors,” he said.
The film was not independent in the sense that it was completely financed by a single studio. Still, Cumming said the relatively small budget for the film created a different atmosphere than the one he has experienced in big-budget Hollywood films.
“We wanted to create a situation where there were no trailers. Everyone just sat on the lawn,” he said. Actors who were able to do their own makeup did so as well.
But Cumming made it clear that, despite the seriousness with which he approaches his work, it is not everything to him.
“My job gives me a lot of things that are quite nice, but it’s not the most important thing in my life,” he said. “If all your happiness and your contentment comes from your work, I think you have to kind of look at yourself and find out why.”
Despite the long wait, most people said they were pleased with the outcome of the talk.
“I really did expect him to be a lot crazier,” Daniel Persitz ’03 said. “I really liked how he was so down to earth.”
“It was worth the hour and a half wait,” Katharine Critchlow ’03 said.