I found the good life in Hollywood
Cumming says moving to LA saved him after breakdown in his late 20s
Alan Cumming says Hollywood saved him after he suffered a breakdown in his 20s.
The star, 55, was raised in Aberfeldy, Perthshire, but is now based in New York.
He has started writing a book about his recovery from a series of personal disasters, including the breakdown of his marriage and memories of his violent father. The Good Wife actor said compiling tthe memoir has helped him realise that moving to Los Angeles played a majorm part in his mental recrecovery.
Spea Speaking on BBC Scotland S cot land’ ss Shelf Isolation, which airs at 10pm tonight, he said: “I’m writing a new book so I’ve been really getting down to that.
“It’s another memoir and it’s about my life since I came to America – recovering from things, thing new things happening to me and learning from the past.
“In my late 20s, I basically ha had a sort of breakdown and my marriage broke up and I rem remembered all these things abo about my father being very abus abusive and I confronted my father – and a whole load of jolly stuff.
“AAfter that my life kind of chan changed and I realise now it was iin the middle of all this stuff that Hollywood called.
“TThat’s what I real ised – Holl Hollywood called a couple of times and I went off and did these things, which really saved me.
“I got this chance to breathe and be away from the situation I was in and kind of start to get myself together.”
Cumming started his career in the theatre and won a Tony Award in 1998 for his portrayal on Broadway of the Master of Ceremonies in musical Cabaret.
In 1995, he appeared as James Bond villain Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye. And in 2003, he played superhero Nightcrawler in X-Men 2.
His 2014 memoir, Not My Father’s Son, dealt with his experiences growing up and discoveries he made about his maternal grandfather, who died playing Russian roulette.