Books | | ALAN CUMMING UNPACKS HIS LIFE
When you’ve enjoyed a fully packed life, titling your memoir Baggage (Oct. 26, Dey Street Books, $28) makes perfect sense. So leave it to stage, film and TV star Alan Cumming to cram into his new book fascinating tales of performing in Broadway’s Cabaret, working with director Stanley Kubrick and the Spice Girls and hanging with pal Liza Minnelli.
“I don’t really like to dwell on the past,” says Cumming, 56. “But I wanted to pass along how I’ve grown from certain challenges.” The Scottish actor, now touring with his oneman stage show, shares more with Parade. —Mara Reinstein 9J[ YTKVG CDQWV VJKU EJCRVGT KP [QWT NKHG! [My 2014 memoir] Not My Father’s Son was so much about the trauma of my childhood. This time, I wanted to share behind the scenes of my Hollywood life without it being a tell-all.
&KF KV TGSWKTG UQOG TGUGCTEJ QP [QWT RCTV! My journal reminded me how many people I met during Cabaret [on Broadway 1998–99]. All these legends like Gregory Peck and Arthur Miller came backstage—it’s like I was in the middle of two distinct times in culture. Crazy!
9JKEJ RTQLGEVU CTG HCP HCXQTKVGU! People are obsessed with Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion [1997].
½m >lÃo > m>}ĶV>l w}ÕÀi LiV>ÕÃi ov QÓä䣽ÃR Spy Kids, which is part of people’s childhoods. It’s such an honor to have movies that are iconic and have an effect on people. I don’t take that lightly.
9JKEJ TQNGU TGCNN[ EJCPIGF [QWT RGTURGEVKXG! My time on The Good Wife [2010–16, as political consultant Eli Gold] changed my life because I played a middle-aged man in a suit! And I am a middle-aged man! But I don’t feel my age. And who decides what acting your age is? I imagine people with clipboards telling you to start wearing cardigans.
;QWoXG JCF C NQV QH CFXGPVWTGU YKVJ .K\C /KPPGNNK &Q [QW UVKNN VCNM! We do. I texted her a little video the other day of my travels in Scotland! She loves my dog, Lala. When I visit her, we sit on her bed and laugh. It’s a lovely and great connection.