Acting legend Alan Cumming has revealed while the Americans have always loved his ‘Scottishness’ the London luvvies often told him to ditch the accent.
The multi award-winning actor, who has found global fame, says English thespians used to look down on him because his voice, his attitude and his values were too Scottish.
Speaking during an appearance at the Wigtown Book Festival with his Victor & Barry sidekick Forbes Masson, Aberfeldy-born Alan, 59, says he was told his accent was a barrier to an acting career.
Cumming, who has become a massive star in the States as host of The Traitors US, said: “A Scottish accent was seen as a demerit rather than a good thing.
“When I went to live in America for the first time, I realised that all the things that people were celebrating me for were the things that I had been slightly been derided for when I lived in London, my voice, my attitude, my difference, my values. These were the things that people said ‘oh, we like that’. And I was like, oh gosh, it is pretty good, isn’t it.”
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Alan, who has starred in dozens of movies and TV shows including Circle of Friends and GoldenEye, admits he owes his glittering career to his country of birth.
Cumming, who has dual US and British citizenship, said: “I really do feel that Scotland has given me everything. It’s given me my education. It gave me my start in theatre and subsidised theatre, I got to do all these plays and make mistakes and that was all funded by a government and a country that valued the arts and valued culture.
“It’s a huge, huge boon to any artist to live in a country that thinks the arts are worthwhile and not just in terms of the amount of money they bring back.”
Alan and Falkirk-born Forbes, 61, earned huge fame and affection for their characters Victor and Barry and as Steve
McCracken and Sebastian Flight in the hit comedy The High Life.
The duo decided to write a book – Victor and Barry’s Kelvinside Compendium – a collection of photos and memories of how they met in 1982 as drama students at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.
Forbes, who has had an illustrious career in theatre, said: “We were one of the first years to rebel against that and Victor and Barry were part of that – it was a confident Scottish voice.
“And we had to keep fighting our corner and keep speaking in our own voice. Over our lifetime Scotland has gained confidence.”
Masson, who played Victor MacIlvanney, was 19 when they first met and was described as the “older sophisticated man” by Cumming, who was only 17.
Neither came from Glasgow but they liked the idea of creating two camp theatricals, founding members of Kelvinside Young Person’s Amateur Dramatic Society.
The inspiration for the accent came from Cumming’s landlady, the rest they improvised.
With their cravats and blazers and their witty songs, they tapped into a long history of Scottish music hall, as well as comedy legends like Chic Murray and Stanley Baxter.
The pair are currently working with Johnny McKnight on a musical version of The High Life and Masson is rehearsing a new production of The Tempest at The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in which he will play Caliban alongside Sigourney Weaver.
Recently announced as the new artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Cumming has expressed major ambitions for the organisation. He said: “I feel Pitlochry is like a football, I want to really kick it into the air and take it into the stratosphere.”
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