It feels like someone's put a Confundus charm on us.
Scottish actor Alan Cumming revealed in a new interview that he was in the running for the role of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets—that is, until he told the powers that be to "f--k off."
"I didn't turn it down," he clarified to The Telegraph. "I told them to f--k off!" Cumming's reaction was due to an alleged payment disagreement.
"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," he revealed. "And I had the same agent as Rupert, who of course, they were going to pay more."
He alleges that the folks at Harry Potter were "blatantly lying," adding, "If you're going to lie, be clever about it."
After Cumming told them to "f--k off," he thought that Everett had the Harry Potter part in the bag.
"They made him screen-test, and I remember he brought his own wig. And then they f--king gave it to Kenneth Branagh, came out of the shadows," he said. Also in the running, apparently, was Love Actually star Hugh Grant. In the end, Branagh got to play the scheming author.
Now, Cumming plays the role of Mayor Menlove in Apple TV+'s musical-comedy Schmigadoon!, which also stars Keegan-Michael Key, Cecily Strong and Fred Armisen.