Alan Cumming has revealed he told Harry Potter producers to “fuck off” when offered a role in the billion-dollar franchise.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Cumming was blunt about his response to being offered the role of Hogwarts Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 2002.
“I didn’t turn it down,” Cumming told the publication.
“I told them to fuck off!
“They wanted me and Rupert Everett to do a screen test, and they said they couldn’t pay me more than a certain sum, they just didn’t have any more money in the budget,” Cumming added.
“And I had the same agent as Rupert, who of course, they were going to pay more. Blatantly lying, stupidly lying, as well. Like, if you’re going to lie, be clever about it.”
“I said, tell them to fuck right off,” he continued.
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“And thought, well Rupert’s going to get the part. They made him screen test, and I remember he brought his own wig. And then they fucking gave it to Kenneth Branagh, came out of the shadows.”
The Harry Potter film franchise wrapped up in 2011 after eight films and has grossed over $7 billion at the box office since its introduction in 2001.
In other somewhat unsavoury Harry Potter revelations, actor Jessie Cave recently claimed she was “treated like a different species” on set after gaining weight in between films.
Cave, who portrayed Lavender Brown in the final three Harry Potter films, opened up about her experience in an interview with The Independent.
“I gained a lot of weight after doing Harry Potter,” she said.
She continued: “I wasn’t starving myself, I was growing up and people tend to gain weight as they get older. That’s just what happens. So I did.”
“And so going back to the last film[s], I was treated like a different species.”
Cave continued on to describe the experience as “really uncomfortable” and “horrible”, explaining: “It wasn’t a time where actresses were any bigger than size eight… you get a bit bigger, or you’re not as relevant, and it goes off, and you have to make your way in the dark. I definitely felt invisible.”
“Since then, it’s definitely made me have weird issues with weight and work. And it’s just so fucked up, but it’s just how it is.”
Now working as an author, illustrator and comedian, Cave added that she feels “safer” because she changed careers.
If I’d stayed thin – unnaturally thin, unhappily thin – I would have probably got more acting roles, and then I wouldn’t have started writing,” she said.
“And then I don’t know who I would be now because writing is who I am. I’m almost grateful that I gained all that weight.”
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