Actor Alan Cumming reveals brutal honesty when turning down Harry Potter role

Actor Alan Cumming had a very blunt response to an offer to star in Harry Potter. Photo / Getty Images

An actor has shared a brutally honest account of turning down a role in the Harry Potter franchise.

Alan Cumming, a Scottish star of the hit legal drama The Good Wife recently told the Telegraph about why he turned down a role in the hit series in the early 2000s.

According to Cumming, 56, he was shortchanged by the production, which refused to pay him what he wanted. He was considered for the role of professor Gilderoy Lockhart in 2002's Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.

The role would eventually go to Kenneth Branagh.

"I didn't turn it down," he told the Telegraph. " I told them to f*** off!''

"They wanted me and Rupert Everett to do a screen test, and they said they couldn't pay me more than a certain sum, they just didn't have any more money in the budget," the Schmigadoon! star explained.

"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."

"I said, tell them to f*** right off," he added, making his feelings about the offer clear.

"And thought, well Rupert's going to get the part. They made him screen test, and I remember he brought his own wig. And then they f**king gave it to Kenneth Branagh, came out of the shadows."

The franchise turned then-child actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson into high profile celebrities, and went on to gross US$7.7 billion at the box office over eight movies.