INTERVIEW WITH ALAN CUMMING WHO PLAYS LEO STRUTHERS

Who is Leo Struthers?

Leo is a man nearing sixty who has recently broken up with his partner and is struggling to keep his business, a gay bar called Spit and Polish, on Canal St. together. He’s a man who is a little bit lost, but functioning. He means well. He’s kind. He’s got his found family around him. And then this series of insane events happen around him. He could be any of us.

What is his relationship with Clive Goss? 

At the start of the show, he doesn’t really have one. They’ve been neighbours for fourteen years and have barely spoken. A nod of the head and a hello. Then this incident happens where he gets locked out of his house and has to go next door. That’s the start of the whole thing, ten days which turn out to be incredibly intimate and ultimately nightmarish. In a funny way, I feel that Clive probably speaks to Leo about things that he’s never spoken to anyone in his life before about. It becomes very intimate very quickly.

What was your first reaction to the script? What specific emotions did it bring up?

I was on board before I read it. Russell had told me about it. What it made me feel was how it absolutely needs to be told because it’s so prescient and it is so about now. Violence and hatred have become so normalised. It has got completely out of control. For me, I just thought this is a brilliant story that needs to be heard because it contains a lesson for all of us. To have something so violent at the centre of it that nobody can justify is a really good place for us to start. 

The potboiler element of the script seems to somehow reflect the way we live today, which can so often feel like a pressure cooker existence...

Really. Russell is so clever. You’re on the edge of your seat despite knowing what is going to happen. The structure of the show is a mirror to society. You’re genuinely terrified of what might happen in life. And I think we should all be terrified of how society is going. Russell kick starts us with this catalyst that almost makes us wake up properly. 

For an actor you have stuck your head repeatedly over the parapet when it comes to the issue of queer rights. Is there any fear left in you around speaking up or attaching yourself to a job with potentially contentious consequences?

I don’t think it’s contentious to tell the truth and I don’t think the truth gets told enough. It probably will be contentious and press many people’s buttons but that is what art is supposed to be for. That’s why I want to make art. There are other projects that I want to do just for enjoyment. But this is something that challenges people and you chose those things for a reason. 

What does Tip Toe say about living in the digital age?

Social media and the digital age doesn’t come out too well in this story. There are many great things about it. The information available to us, access and the potential to connect with people who are different to us. All these things that you think would make our society better, But of course it presents these opportunities for misinformation and for that to breed, as it does in this story, horrible consequences. It’s a warning in many ways. About how much we’ve stopped connecting with each other. About how much we’re dissociating with one another. We have our heads down too much, when we should be looking at one another. 

Tell me about Leo’s tendency to fabulize a story, a very gay trait which we see early on in the drama. Why do we as queer people feel the need to crowd-please with a story? 

I think it’s a gay thing but it’s also just about him being a raconteur.

There’s also an innate nervousness that you manage to communicate about him, even when he’s at his most defiant?

That’s just acting, I suppose. To feel something then hopefully your body shows it to the world. We all do mixed messages all the time. The great thing about this show is that it recognises those nuances. You can see everyone’s point of view, why they’ve arrived where they have. We contain multitudes. Watching it back was so painful, even though I knew what happened. I was on the edge of my seat, thinking don’t, don’t say that. Just for once, keep your mouth shut. The script alludes to it. “That’s gay, too, we shine and burn.” What a great line. 

Talk to me about acting with David Morrissey?

This is the first time we’ve acted together though we’ve known each other since the 80s. We met in Bristol in 1989. His girlfriend at the time was in a play with me and it turned out he lived on the next street to me in London. We saw each other every day for a couple of years. We moved on but have always stayed friends. It was so great to do this with a friend, with someone I know and trust and love and who has been such a good friend to me for so long. He’s an absolutely solid, decent, beautiful human being. So to have that very violent and disturbing work to do with him, to make yourself that vulnerable when you feel that comfortable with someone it does make it easier. I can’t imagine doing some of that script with someone I was only getting to know.

The beautiful scene you share with Melba on Canal St, where the two characters discuss walking into rooms on tip toe, of the new caution around queer issues is being used as the first trailer for the show. How did that scene play out? 

I love Paul. And what an incredible character Melba is. The whole thing was this like being under this massive dome of imminent darkness and doom and sadness at all times, and this is the speech where it all sort of stems from. I had this very monastic time in Manchester. It’s an exhausting script to act, that puts you in a very weird emotional state. There was never really a day when there wasn’t something incredibly intense to do. I do think and hope that everyone is challenged by this. It’s a genius piece of writing planting a flag in the ground and saying “hey everybody, let’s stop for a minute and look at what is happening and try and hopefully make this better.” It’s not pointing fingers. 

Leo is given a great supporting cast, the female best friend Stephanie played by Elizabeth Berrington, the lovely, together ex-boyfriend he couldn’t make it work with, Curtis, played by Charlie Condou. They’re both quite sharp reminders that Leo’s is among the first gay generations that have been allowed to get old within the law and with visibility. That comes with its own responsibilities and complications?

That’s so interesting. Charlie [Condou, Curtis] I have known for years and we slipped into our relationship perfectly. When I heard he’d been cast I couldn’t think of anyone more perfect. He exudes solid, good person. You’re safe with him. He would be a good boyfriend. Whereas Leo’s a bit a of a mess. There’s a beautiful scene where Leo unravels a bit with him, which is heartbreaking. With Elizabeth [Berrington, Stephanie], I really settled in too. That thing about getting older is so interesting. 

What about kids George’s age. Do you worry about queer youth. Shouldn’t it have been easier for them than it was for our generation to come out? 

Oh yes. I mean it can be easier. I know some young people who didn’t even need to come out, they just were. But it can be so much harder. You have a whole system of information that will spread your news despite yourself. It’s all about family. If you’re scared to tell your parents and family then it’s going to be hard, no matter what. I do worry for that generation for all sorts of reason. Covid. Mental health issues. Social discomfort and anxiety. They haven’t been able to practice life in the same way we did.  I have to say, though, the young people involved in making this show, a show that’s about where we’ve gone wrong, and the horrors of how our society has become, they themselves filled me with hope. I came away with new optimism. The young people on the crew too, they were so kind and supportive to each other and open and understanding. The lads, especially in the final episode, were making sure they looked after each other while filming. They’d come up and give you a hug and say, “are you OK?” Everyone sat around in a circle afterwards and said what they were grateful for. That gives you hope. It makes it easier to come out of that hard, dark place. They are the real future.

What does Russell’s work mean to you? 

I love him so much. He writes authentically of a world that I am a part of and that hadn’t been properly chronicled before. He’s not afraid to be provocative or controversial. I’ve nearly worked with him so many times. It’s almost fateful that it’s taken until now for it to properly happen. I am at the perfect time in my life to play this role to the best of how I can possibly play it. We also share a love of nice people. We can’t stand dicks. Well, we love dicks, obviously. But not people who act like dicks. I just feel this is a perfect union in this moment. I just think this is an incredible piece of work and I am so proud of it. I was so attached to it but I also couldn’t wait to let Leo go. That’s the weight of great writing. 

Who would you most like to see Tip Toe?

I think it has something for everyone. Middle aged gay men, parents, women who consider themselves to be open-minded, and of course people who espouse anti-LGBT+ rhetoric, to be challenged about their prejudices. Everybody has their prejudices challenged in Tip Toe. This is a piece of drama, but it is also a piece of social commentary that is essential viewing for where we are in the world right now.