Interview: Alan Cumming Talks Getting Bad for STRANGE MAGIC, Juggling THE GOOD WIFE & CABARET, and More!

Touchstone Pictures just released Lucasfilm's STRANGE MAGIC animated adventure, featuring the voices of Alan Cumming (Broadway's CABARET), Evan Rachel Wood, Elijah Kelley, Meredith Anne Bull, Sam Palladio, Kristin Chenoweth (Broadway's ON THE 20TH CENTURY) and more.

Directed by Gary Rydstrom ("Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation," "Lifted"), STRANGE MAGIC has a screenplay by David Berenbaum, Irene Mecchi, and Gary Rydstrom and a story by George Lucas. Lucas also serves as executive producer.

STRANGE MAGIC, a new animated film from Lucasfilm Ltd., is a madcap fairy tale musical inspired by "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Popular songs from the past six decades help tell the tale of a colorful cast of goblins, elves, fairies and imps, and their hilarious misadventures sparked by the battle over a powerful potion.

BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge chatted with Cumming about lending his voice to the film, juggling his crazy Broadway and television schedule, and much more. Check out the full interview below!

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Tell me what it was like making this... It's a long process making these kind films, isn't it?

This one was particularly long because, I mean, I could put four years into something, because, actually, I think because of George, because of the way he works and the kind of luxury of having that way, he didn't have, there wasn't like "oh, this point it's going to come out" or "at this point it's going to go to the next stage," you know, evaluating. It did, it kept going and kept going and then it kept changing and you take your time, and so, in a funny way, in retrospect, it was really good because, it just, they did it until he felt it was the best it could be rather than doing it to the schedule of the studio. At the time it was actually a little frustrating, cause I actually thought this film might never come out.

How did this all happen for you?

I just got asked. I've done quite a lot of voicey things like this, and so I just, you know, my agent said, "Do you want to do this George Lucas film? Here's the picture of the guy. It's based on A Midsummer Night's Dream. Blah, blah, blah, Sounds fun." And I didn't think when I did it - I sort of thought, "Oh well, you know, I'll sing a few songs. Sometimes on animated films, it's a matter of days, and you work on a small number of days. I had no idea it would be so many days and also over so many years. And just so many - we recorded loads of songs, and then they were cut and there was a whole sort of regime change, different writers, and different director and everything. I can't believe I made it to the end.

When you first started out, was there a sketch of who you were going to be as the Bog King?

Yeah, you get a look usually, like in most of the things I've done like that you get at least an illustration, and there were several things they showed me. And the kind of the aesthetic of the animation, the kind of, you know, like in my world especially, the kind of gothic nature of it, it's quite unusual in terms of the detail and everything. That was really important cause it was sort of - although I'm a kind of archetypal, scaly, Boogie Man in the start, he actually is kind of, quite layered and detailed. Something happens to him. But also you can - the way it looked helped me in terms of how I chose to do my voice in it. That was really helpful. And then, as the process goes on, you get more and more stimulation and animatic, and finally the animation comes and that changes a lot.

I've heard that you create your own little world in the recording booth. Were you even near your director?

Sometimes. Sometimes he would come into the studio with you, especially if you're singing. And you'd have singing sessions as well. Sometimes he would sit with you, but often I would do it and they would be on Skype and I would be in some studio in New York and they would be in... I think of a ranch. Skywalker Ranch. And other times they flew me to L.A. and I would do it there actually with them. I think one time I was in London, I did it. You know, it's amazing what you can do. I've done some films like that where you never meet the people at all. You do them all by a sort of voice in the sky.

That happens in live movies too. Someone will be like, "Oh, I made four movies with this actor, yet we were never in any scenes and we never met..."

In 'The Good Wife'! Mostly on 'The Good Wife', the guest stars come in for the court stories, law parts of the stories - I'm never in those. So it's all these actors who've been in 'The Good Wife' and I never meet them.

Yeah, now recording the music, did you actually work with Evan [Rachel Wood] when you were shooting?

No, I only met Evan today.

That's crazy!

Yeah, we never met. I mean, I would hear her, toward the end. Not toward the end, but whoever of us recorded - we did several songs together - whoever recorded first, the next time the other person recorded, you would hear them. Sometimes you would just have to lay it down on your own, leaving gaps for them. The thing about one of these things is you're always going back, you're constantly going back and revisiting and changing and tweaking it, so it's not like you do one scene and that's it. So then you go back later on and you kind of hear her, but it's still a weird situation to be in. But it makes you focus, it makes you really focus on how you're sounding.

What was the coolest aspect of working on animation?

I think with this, the coolest aspect was getting to sing the songs from all those different eras. Getting a Deep Purple song. I never thought I'd sing a Deep Purple song in a big Hollywood movie. That's kind of random. That was pretty cool.

You rock out in this movie.

I totally rock out, I know.

I see a new album: Alan Cumming: Rock Songs

I know. Rock your socks off.

Now let's talk about CABARET... what's it been like for you revisiting this great role and revisiting this show?

This has been an amazing year because I sort of, I feel I own it in a way I didn't before. I've got a better understanding of the whole play. I think there's a better balance in the whole play now. And also, I feel like, you know, I couldn't understand why I kept being drawn to this character, why I kept coming back. And I think it's because I understand, with the audience every night it's a different experience. I'm totally interacting with them, controlling them, you know, feeding off them, and so that makes it such an exciting thing. And I've realized that there's an element in my life and my work, that I miss, which is directly dealing with an audience in a way that's beyond just being in a play - it's more of an engagement with them. And I think that has to do with my being Scottish and the traditions I grew up in and the fact that I did standup comedy really early in my life. And that's why I think it's amazing I've started to do that in my concerts, my own concerts over the last few years. That, obviously I've done that because I needed to feel that kind of connection that I get with an audience in Cabaret.

I first met you as soon as you came here the first time. I think we all sat in an afternoon at the Kit Kat Klub and you were still in rehearsals at the time, and the show was so different in London. It must be cool revisiting it so many years later and looking at it totally differently...

It is, it's really - I think this version is better because there's certain things that - like, the sort of sexiness of it before and the kind of eroticism and shock value of all that stuff kind of overshadowed, I think, some of the darker bits of it. This time, 16 years on, it's still fun, it's still sexy, but it's not as sensational as it was, all that stuff, and I think that's good. I mean, I couldn't believe everyone was still freaking out about it here, but now, I think it has its place more now, and it also allows some of the other stuff in the play to come out, for it to pack a punch, a better punch.

And how did you juggle both things? How did you juggle 'The Good Wife' and CABARET?

Ugh it's, you know, just ask my assistant. It's a constant sort of, he does my, you know everything in my diary is all - I mean there's certain rules, like they're not allowed to use me on a matinee day and every other Monday and Tuesday, so I can actually get one weekend every two weeks off, but that didn't happen because of my book tour. So it's just, it's very difficult, because the thing is that it's not so much that they have to get me to the theatre by a certain time and stuff like that, but it usually means I work on my days off and the worst thing is if I, on Wednesday nights, cause it's a matinee day and then I have soup night at Club Cumming, it's a big night, and I have to do like 5:30 pick up the next morning, that's no fun whatsoever. Closing your own club, you know, against your will, because you have to get up early the next morning, is not something that I recommend. I mean, I'm on the last, I'm on exit 15 now, so I've only got seven to go. I think it's going to be ok, I'm going to survive.

Photo Credit: Lucasfilms