I was being incredibly flirty with Tom.. Kubrick said ‘Take it up a notch’
Tom Cruise, Stanley Kubrick and a week on Eyes Wide Shut
HE’S “flirted” with Tom Cruise, spent a summer with the Spice Girls and given some serious attitude to Hollywood legend Stanley Kubrick.
Now in his autobiography Baggage, actor Alan Cumming tells of the A-list encounters that helped shape him.
Scottish Alan, 56, with star roles in everything from Emma to X-Men 2 and the Good Wife, says: “Much of Baggage chronicles my life in Hollywood and how work whisked me away from calamity.
“I’ve endeavoured to show how I’ve become a happy, flawed, vulnerable, fearless man...with lots of baggage.” Here are some of those incredible stories...
claire.oboyle@mirror.co.uk @ClaireOBoyle2
It’s always awkward on your first day in any new job, not knowing who’s who and how everything works. By then, Eyes Wide Shut had been shooting for over a year, and would eventually hold the Guinness World Record for the world’s longest continuous film shoot, at 400 days!
Things were pretty well into their stride by the time I rolled up as new boy. I was called for rehearsal and walked on set to find Tom Cruise and Stanley Kubrick standing before me.
THROAT
I had met Tom briefly when he came to see Cabaret in London, but it was my first encounter with Stanley, who peered at me over his glasses.
“Hey, Stanley, I’m Alan,” I said, proffering my hand to this old man, who, on first glance, reminded me of a Hobbit version of Salman Rushdie.
“You’re not American!” he retorted gruffly. I had heard tales of Stanley being formidable and demanding, so I was slightly on guard already.
“I know,” I said, still rather taken aback. “I’m Scottish!”
“You were American on the tapes,” he continued.
Something in me snapped, or maybe I just took an objective look at the situation – I had been waiting for months to shoot this scene after auditioning for it many times, on several continents.
“F*** you, old man,” thought to myself. I know
I was American on the tapes. But I actually said, “Yeah, that’s because I’m an actor, Stanley.”
Nothing was said for a moment. Tom cleared his throat a little awkwardly. I think I caught the hint of a smile beneath Stanley’s bushy beard. “Let’s run the lines,” he replied. It’s well-known that Stanley did many, many takes of scenes, and I had girded my loins to be ready to repeat and regurgitate my performance ad nauseam.
My scene involves me, as a hotel clerk, being questioned by Tom Cruise as he tries to find out information about a missing man. Part of the reason it is so memorable, aside from it being the only funny scene in the entire movie, is that I am basically cruising Tom. The clerk is incredibly flirty, and I remember voicing my worry to Stanley that perhaps I’d gone a little too far in how enamoured I was and how full-on my seduction seemed (and remember, that was me saying this). Stanley would have none of it.
“No!” he encouraged me. “Keep going! It can go up another notch!”
I worked only a week on Eyes Wide Shut, yet perhaps a reason why my time on this film is so entrenched in my mind is that it was an experience that confounded my expectations.
MORTALS
All the stories I’d heard before starting were that Stanley was a despot and Tom some sort of sacred Hollywood cow that we mere mortals must not gaze upon.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. Tom was sweet and approachable and talked lovingly of his wife, and no, nothing registered on my gaydar.
Stanley was hilarious, interested, and interesting, and we had great chats about Kafka and Chekhov.