Alan Cumming recently confirmed that he didn't mince words when turning down an audition for the role of Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in Warner Bros.' film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
"I didn't turn it down," the Scottish actor told The Telegraph. "I told them to fuck off!"
Cumming says that both he and Rupert Everett were asked to do a screen test for the role of Professor Lockhart. However, Cumming was told upfront by producers that they couldn't pay him what he wanted, claiming it was due to budgetary constraints.
"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," Cumming recalled. "I said, tell them to fuck right off. And thought, well Rupert's going to get the part." That said, while Cumming remembers Everett doing the screen test and even bringing his own wig, the studio ultimately cast Kenneth Branagh in the role.
Cumming's comments about Harry Potter come roughly a week after franchise star Daniel Radcliffe revealed that he wouldn't want to portray Harry if the series was rebooted. "I would probably want to go with like, Sirius or Lupin," Radcliffe told Game Night host Josh Horowitz. "Those were always the two characters that I was like 'They're great.' And also like, I'm obviously biased by my experience of filming those scenes, with those people, and they're like some of my favorite memories."
In other Harry Potter-related news, a first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone signed by author J.K. Rowling recently sold for £80,000 ($94,848) at auction. The item sold for roughly three times the amount that the auction house estimated it would. In doing so, the book broke the record set by a signed copy of the same edition that sold for £125,000 ($148,162.50) at a European auction last year.
Source: The Telegraph