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A joyous and poignant book about the world of professional acting, the messiness of life and how every experience - good or bad - shapes who you are, from the New York Times bestselling author of Not My Father's Son
'No one ever fully recovers from their past. There is no cure for it. You just learn to manage and prioritise it. I believe the second you feel you have triumphed or overcome something - an abuse, an injury to the body or the mind, an addiction, a character flaw, a habit, a person - you have merely decided to stop being vigilant and embraced denial as your modus operandi. And that is what this book is about, and for: to remind you not to buy in to the Hollywood ending.'
Baggage chronicles the actor's life in Hollywood and the ways in which work has repeatedly whisked him away from personal calamities to sets and stages around the world. Taking us through the highs and lows of his career, his struggle with mental health, each failed relationship or encounter with a legend (Liza! X Men! Gore Vidal! Kubrick! Spice Girls!), every bad decision or moment of sensual joy, Cumming shows how every experience - good or bad - has shaped who he is today: a happy, flawed, vulnerable, fearless middle-aged man, with a lot of baggage. Startlingly honest, both poignant and joyous, Baggage shines a light on how to embrace the complicated messiness of life.
Baggage chronicles the actor's life in Hollywood and the ways in which work has repeatedly whisked him away from personal calamities to sets and stages around the world. Taking us through the highs and lows of his career, his struggle with mental health, each failed relationship or encounter with a legend (Liza! X Men! Gore Vidal! Kubrick! Spice Girls!), every bad decision or moment of sensual joy, Cumming shows how every experience - good or bad - has shaped who he is today: a happy, flawed, vulnerable, fearless middle-aged man, with a lot of baggage. Startlingly honest, both poignant and joyous, Baggage shines a light on how to embrace the complicated messiness of life.
Author: Alan Cumming
Paperback Published 10 January 2023 288 pages
Published in trade paperback 2 November 2021
Read and Recommended by Graeme:
"Alan Cumming is acclaimed as a versatile performer - theatre, film, television, cabaret, voice-over work - but he is also a gifted writer. He strikes a thoroughly engaging, and intimate tone. He’s witty, entertaining, insightful, unafraid to examine and own up to his old faults and failings, and the celebrity gossip he dishes up is absolutely first rate! There are many anecdotes about famous people such as Gore Vidal, Faye Dunaway, Liza Minnelli, and director Bryan Singer (the early X-Men films), and often they are not particularly flattering or filtered. Where he does tend to be more coy is when it comes to describing his ex-partners and relationships, usually not revealing their names. The narrative is episodic and jumps around somewhat, but this is not distracting. What shines through is that this is a celebrity memoir which is authentic - Cumming wrote it himself as evidenced by the fact that he was four years late delivering the manuscript to his publisher."