Alan Cumming Brings “Any Day Now” to the Center
by Heidi Peck
The touching new drama, “Any Day Now,” had a special advanced screening at the Center on December 13 followed by a panel discussion which included the film’s star, two-time Emmy nominee, Alan Cumming. The film is set in West Hollywood in 1979, when drag queens weren’t yet Glamazons, some people just didn’t have a home phone and huckapoos replaced starchy white business shirts at the District Attorney’s office. Otherwise, much of the same injustice we faced then still plagues us today.
Alan Cumming, a multi-dimensional, endlessly talented actor, writer, director, singer and more, got a room full of chuckles as he said “When I first read the script, I was like, ‘a gay man as a drag queen, really?’” poking fun at his other similar roles. But he saw the larger picture. Cumming plays Rudy, a poverty-stricken gay man who surprisingly becomes an instant parent when his drug-addicted neighbor abandons her son, Marco (played by Isaac Leyva), a teenager with Down syndrome who would otherwise become a ward of the state. As Marco falls through the cracks of social services, Rudy and his unlikely lawyer boyfriend Paul (played by Garret Dillahunt), battle for custody, fiercely attempting to keep their unconventional family together. As Glennda Testone, Executive Director of the Center, said in her introduction, “Get out the tissues.”
After the movie, Alan Cumming joined a panel on LGBT parenting and adoption. He was joined on stage by gay parents and Center Families clients, Shawn Bradia and Rene Ortiz; the discussion was moderated by Steve Majors from Family Equality Council. It was a surprisingly intimate conversation, as all present were moved hearing how Bradia and Ortiz’s stability was questioned while the current laws (or lack thereof) put their lives into upheaval during the adoption process. Cumming whispered in a thick Scottish accent, “It makes me mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore,” with a signature twinkle in his eye.
“Any Day Now” has received more than ten film festival awards and is showing in New York at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema and the Film Society Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. And while most celebrities would be chowing down in some trendy Chelsea restaurant that night or getting house seats to a Broadway show, Alan Cumming was at the Center for his last stop. I hope this movie becomes iconic, and, in the near future – outdated. I believe those involved would want the same, as they put aside Hollywood, to humbly advocate for equality and social justice, proving to us once again that it’s about the message not the messenger.
