Eavesdropping - Megan Mulally

I interviewed the gorgeous Megan Mulally for the fourth of my series of specials Eavesdropping with Alan Cumming for the Oxygen channel in LA. We had never met before but got on like a house on fire.

Eavesdropping - Liv Tyler

I took the lovely Liv Tyler to Coney Island for the third of my Eavesdropping with Alan Cumming shows for Oxygen.

Talk Shows

During the press tour for X2:X Men United I did a lot of talk shows, including The Jonathon Ross Show for the BBC in the UK

And then here I am on Caroline Rhea, Conan O'Brien and Graham Norton as well as clips from coverage of the premiere in LA, the WB11 news in NYC, E News Live and soooo on.

Orange Mobile advert

I shot an Orange Mobile phone commercial which was shown in UK cinemas. It was part of a series of ads in which various actors tried to pitch ideas to Mr Orange. It's quite a hoot.

Until There's A Cure

I went to San Francisco and shot this PSA for Until There's a Cure

Eavesdropping - Halle Berry

I went to LA to interview the goddess that is Halle Berry for my Eavesdropping with Alan Cumming show. We had just finished shooting X2, and that is why I look ill and drawn and fat. 

Talk Shows

The lovely Wayne Brady, the hilarious Caroline Rhea, and my first time sparring with the delightful Graham Norton. Then Conan. And giving an award away with Rachel Griffiths at the Independent Spirits

Oscars 2002

I was asked to go on the BBC's coverage of the Oscars and discuss my thoughts with Jonathon Ross. I was in LA anyway shooting Zero Effect, so I did, and had a real laugh with Jonathon.

Eavesdropping - Gwyneth Paltrow

I was asked by Dori Berinstein if I'd like to do a talk show for the then new channel, Oxygen.  I'd always loved chatting and the idea appealed to me, though I was wary of staying away from more conventional formats which I didn't think would suit me.  So we came up with Eavesdropping with Alan Cumming.

The idea is that the audience would basically be voyeurs.  I would meet up with someone, usually someone I alredy knew, and we would wander around together, get in a car and drive to a restaurant, and then eat. Pretty simple and not exactly ground-breaking but it actually made for some really interesting material.

On most talk shows, you are performing. I always say that when I come out and sit on the sofa I feel as though I am playing a version of myself: Alan Cumming, the chatty celebrity. I genuinely do enjoy most TV talk shows (the lack of ability for them to editorialise as well as the opportunity to counter any nonsense on the spot has a lot to do with it), but there is a format which you must adhere to: regurgitate the anecdotes you have been briefed to do per the pre-interview you have had with the show's producer.  So there is a pressure to be funny and witty and brief - attributes that are usually incidental to why you are actually on the show on the first place! .  Some hosts, of course, are confident and skilled enough to be spontaneous and to have a genuine conversation, but mostly it is a series of pre-arranged funny stories.

So the great thing about the Eavesdropping format, despite the fact that we were aware of being tailed by three camera teams and we had to stop occasionaly for technical reasons, was that there was no pressure to be funny or to tell anecdotes. It was quite rambly, and when it worked best, a genuine conversation between two friends.

For me the best bits are in the car.  There we used two tiny cameras at either side of the front windshield (they're called lipstick cams) and although there was a cameraman out of sight in the back seat behind us, it really was the most self-conscious you could possibly get whilst being interviewed on a TV show! I think this section in the first show with Gwyneth Paltrow proves my point. 

I also get Gwyneth to come off her macro-biotic diet and have french fries. Beat that, David Letterman.

Talk shows

I appear to have been something of a media whore in 2001.

Well, I did have Design For Living, Spy Kids, The Anniversary Party and Josie and the Pussycats all happening. Some of the shows i whored myself to were MTV's Hot Zone, The Kirsty Wark Show, E! Daily News, Access Hollywood, CNN Lifestyles, Live with Regis and Kelly, Conan, Today in NYC!