Original-Cin Q&A: Alan Cumming and director Jono McLeod on the Real-Life Saga of My Old School
By Bonnie Laufer
My Old School is a new documentary (played at Hot Docs and was a hit at Sundance) by first-time feature film director Jono McLeod. McLeod is a former onscreen reporter for Scottish TV news who moved behind the camera at BBC Scotland.
The story of My Old School is insane and perplexing.
Veteran actor and performer Alan Cumming appears both visually and aurally (though not at the same time) in My Old School. It unravels the true story of Brandon Lee, a mysterious 16-year-old student who, in 1993, enrolled at Bearsden Academy, a secondary school in a well-to-do suburb of Glasgow, Scotland.
What was revealed about Brandon over the next two years would become a sensational news story.
Alan Cumming lip-synching the words of the adult Brandon Lee in My Old School.
Filmmaker McLeod, who attended the school with Brandon, talks not only to former classmates and teachers, but also to Brandon who agreed to an audio-only interview.
Ingeniously, Cumming becomes the face of adult Brandon - by appearing on camera and lip synching to the audio interview - and the voice of young Brandon (by voicing him in animated flashbacks).
Our Bonnie Laufer caught up with Alan Cumming and Jono McLeod about working on this unique and captivating documentary.
My Old School opens July 29 in Toronto (Hot Docs) and Vancouver (Vancity). The film opens throughout the summer in other cities.
ORIGINAL-CIN Jono, what an extraordinary story and you lived through it! Was making this film and telling Brandon’s extraordinary story percolating in your brain for the last few decades?
Director Jono McLeod
JONO McLEOD: It's definitely been my dinner party story for 20-plus years. It's like a first-date story, it's everything and so unbelievable.
I always knew that when the time came to make my first feature, the most prominent story in my life was the Brandon story. So yeah, here it is everyone. I hope you all like it.
O-C: Alan, chalk up another great performance. This is so different from what we've seen you do. You're taking Brandon’s voice, lip syncing to it absolutely perfectly (no surprise). What kind of challenge was that for you?
ALAN CUMMING: It was a lot, an extraordinary challenge in fact. I knew and I understood lip-syncing because I've done that before, but I'd only ever lip-synced myself.
So then to lip-sync to someone else, but also to embody the whole fake persona. I can't quite put into words but it was like nothing I've ever done.
You don't expect to have to lip-sync an entire leading role in a film, so it was incredibly daunting. I knew quite a lot about Brandon and what went on as well.
Personally, I was aware of the story when it broke in the 90s. And then, I was going to actually play him in a feature film and direct it. But unfortunately that fell through the cracks.
O-C: All you have to go on is his voice recordings. But did you ever get to sit down and meet with him, to get to know a little bit more about what was going on in his brain?
CUMMING: No, I didn't, because 25 years ago, when I was working on the film, I was actually in New York and I didn't have the opportunity to meet with him face to face. Then this time around I didn’t meet him either and in a funny way, I honestly didn’t want to. I feel in a way that he is some sort of mythological character. I feel like I am resolved in my Brandon Lee story now.
O-C – Jono, you were able to assemble quite a number of your former classmates to participate in the documentary. How hard was it convincing them to come on camera and to join you in this journey?
MCLEOD: Some of them were more keen than others. And honestly, some of them could not remember me. (Laughs). I wasn’t the most dynamic classmate.
I wasn't even from the town where the film was set. The actual town, a small suburb just outside of Scotland, is kind of a character in the film itself, and I was from the other side of the tracks. So, as a documentary filmmaker it kind of put me in a good position because I was very much outside of events.
I wasn't a friend of Brandon's. I wasn't going to the parties, all of that. So, all of it kind of came as news to me.
And as I found my way through the process of putting this story together, I discovered so many things along the way that people watching the film will discover too.
O-C: Okay, Alan forgive me for fan-girling, but I am such a huge fan of yours. Everything that you do. I was enthralled by your recent autobiography, Schmigadoon, Cabaret, I can go on. But when I found out you were coming back as Eli Gold for the last season of The Good Fight, I got extremely giddy. Please tell me that you have scenes with Mandy Patinkin, and what was it like reuniting with that amazing cast, most of whom are such Broadway veterans?
CUMMING: Bonnie, I am sorry but I do not have any scenes with Mandy Patinkin. So disappointing, but life goes on. (Laughs).
But it was really lovely to go back and see so many familiar faces again. We shot it on the same set where we shot The Good Wife, and a lot of the same crew were still there. It was fabulous reuniting with the brilliant Sarah Steele who plays my daughter Marissa, I just love her.
And of course working again with the brilliant Christine Baranski. it was a lovely thing to come to this and be a part of it.
Also I didn't know when I did it that it was going to be the last season so I'm really glad I did because it ends on such a high note. No spoilers, but I can promise you and all the fans of the show the episodes are explosive.