ALAN Cumming has revealed that he once baffled directing legend Stanley Kubrick – by being Scottish.
Cumming had a small part in Kubrick’s 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut , alongside Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
But Cumming, who played a hotel receptionist, utterly confused Kubrick on set by chatting to Cruise in his natural Scots accent.
The 51-year-old actor revealed during a public appearance in Canada: “They said, ‘Okay, it’s time Alan – go onto the set’, and there’s Tom Cruise and Stanley Kubrick.
“I’d met Tom briefly before, and he was being very nice and chatting, and I was chatting to him. And Stanley’s just looking at me.
“He said, all of a sudden, in the middle of when I was talking, he went, ‘You’re not American.’
“And I was like, ‘I know Stanley, I’m Scottish.’
“And he went, ‘You were American on the tape.’
“In my head I thought, ‘Listen old man, I’ve auditioned for the f****** pishy little part six times, I’ve been waiting months for the start date of this stupid thing.
“‘F*** you, It’s 6am, I’m not f****** American, I’m Scottish. Deal with it’.”
Cumming added: “But what I said was, ‘That’s because I’m an actor Stanley’. And actually he immediately was like, ‘Oh, who’s this one?’
Cumming – who has appeared in X Men and hit TV show the Good Wife – is on screen for just three and a half minutes in the movie.
The film chronicles Cruise’s character – Dr Bill Harford – as he encounters an underground secret society.
In the movie Alan Cumming’s receptionist reveals that the character who first told Cruise about the society has been carted off by their henchmen.
Kubrick is generally regarded as one of the best directors of all time – having also produced 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr Strangelove and The Shining.
Cumming was speaking at the Toronto International Film Festival.
