Nightcrawler Actor Alan Cumming Called Working On ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ “Healing” Despite Not Knowing “Who I Was Acting With Half The Time”
Actor Alan Cumming’s time in makeup as Nightcrawler was a lifetime ago in X2: X-Men United. Aside from that, he wasn’t in the role very long, either, with only that film to his credit in Fox’s X-Universe. Kodi Smit-McPhee played Kurt Wagner for a longer period, but Cumming is still the one who received the call from Marvel – similar to the unexpected summonings of Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and Channing Tatum before him.
He will appear in Avengers: Doomsday along with those men and Ian McKellen, who is back as Magneto. Though the film is still in production, Cumming is free to talk about his experiences on the set, especially how they contrast with his horrendous memories of X2 and its director, Bryan Singer.
“I just came back,” he said in an interview with People. “It was amazing. It was actually really… in a sort of ooey, gooey way, it was really healing and really nice to go back to something that was a terrible experience when I did it the first time.” Cumming then glowed effusively for the next Avengers. “A great film, great film. I love the film.”
“It was actually really great to go back,” Cumming added. “I’m 60 years old. I did not think I would be doing stunts, playing a superhero in my 60s. So that was great. And everyone was really nice. And I got it done really quickly because I couldn’t go, because of [commitments to reality game show] The Traitors, when most of my scenes were being shot.”
Unsurprisingly, Doomsday is being assembled the Marvel way, and Cumming’s scenes were filmed in absentia, meaning much of what we shall see of him on screen is going to be digitally inserted in post. “I did the entire film in isolation. Lots of green screen, face replacement,” he revealed in a separate interview with Gold Derby. “They even gave characters fake names. I don’t know who I was acting with half the time.”
Despite the confusion, at least Bryan Singer wasn’t one of his scene partners. Even before allegations of sexual misconduct and predation of young men and teen boys ruined his once promising career, Singer’s bad reputation was laid bare on every set he visited. Sudden extended absences, opioids, and tyrannical demands were the norm on his X-Men films. Still, they made money, and as long as they did, 20th Century Fox was willing to look the other way.
The real cost came in the form of an emotional toll on actors like Cumming. He detailed his demoralizing experiences in 2021 as a guest on the SiriusXM podcast White Wine Question Time with Kate Thornton.
“We were really in a very bad working situation. It was dangerous, it was abusive, and the studio didn’t care. All the actors said something and they still just went, ‘Oh, nevermind. It’s only gonna be a few more weeks, don’t worry. And it’s gonna make a lot of money.’ They actually said that and also, ‘you’re under contract.’ And I said, ‘I don’t want to feel dirty about going to work’. I would cry, it was just tragic,” he recounted (via Slash Film).
“I would be in that awful blue makeup,” Cumming additionally recalled. “I put on loads of weight during that because I would just eat, I was exhausted. My boyfriend at the time would make all these crazy big meals. I would go home, eat a ton, have a couple glasses of wine, burst into tears and go to sleep. And then go and be a miserable blue mutant [the next day].”
