--- title: Alan Cumming Talks Iconic Romy and Michele Dance description: No matter how big of a Romy and Michele fan you are, you're apparently going to be hard-pressed to get Alan Cumming to reenact his iconic dance. canonical: https://time.com/5298614/alan-cumming-romy-and-michele-dance/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-01T16:19:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T09:29:23.283Z og:title: Alan Cumming Will Not Do the Romy and Michele Dance for You og:description: So please stop asking og:url: https://time.com/5298614/alan-cumming-romy-and-michele-dance/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58b1326250c21834/69893215db2987bbef25fd48/romy-and-micheles-high-school-reunion_haelnr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: Alan Cumming Romy and Michele's High School Reunion og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Alan Cumming Will Not Do the Romy and Michele Dance for You twitter:description: So please stop asking twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58b1326250c21834/69893215db2987bbef25fd48/romy-and-micheles-high-school-reunion_haelnr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Alan Cumming Probably Won't Do the _Romy and Michele_ Dance With You So Stop Asking > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=e6920972-c906-497a-a426-e0b129a1bdfa&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Alan Cumming Constantly Gets Asked to Perform His iconic 'Romy and Michele' Dance at Strangers’ Weddings [Watch (HLS stream): Alan Cumming Constantly Gets Asked to Perform His iconic 'Romy and Michele' Dance at Strangers’ Weddings](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rU5jGBTD.m3u8) (1:57)  _Published 2018-06-01. The actor reflects on his time shooting the dance scene in 'Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.'_  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jun 1, 2018 4:19 PM UTC The actor reflects on his time shooting the dance scene in 'Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.'  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jun 1, 2018 4:19 PM UTC No matter how big of a [_Romy and Michele_](http://time.com/4250658/stage-musical-romy-and-micheles-high-school-reunion-seattle/)fan you are, you’re apparently going to be hard-pressed to get [Alan Cumming](http://time.com/3911972/tony-awards-kristin-chenoweth-alan-cumming/) to reenact his iconic _High School Reunion_ [dance](http://time.com/5246062/westworld-season-2-delos-dance/) with you. During a recent appearance on [PeopleTV’s _Couch_ _Surfing_](http://ew.com/movies/2018/06/01/alan-cumming-romy-and-michele-dance/) to promote his new show _Instinct_, the Scottish actor revealed why he’s probably not that keen on recreating the [scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGj4TGz3408) from the 1997 cult classic in which his character Sandy performs an interpretive dance to Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” with both Romy (Mira Sorvino) and Michele (Lisa Kudrow). “People actually ask me—and think I’m going to do it—they ask me, ‘Would you come and do the _Romy and Michele_ dance with me and my husband or me and my wife at our wedding?’ Fairly often,” he told host Lola Ogunnaike. “I just think they think it’d be a hilarious thing, it’s worth an ask, I might do it, but \[it’s\] people I don’t know.” However, that’s not to say he doesn’t enjoy videos of others imitating the trio’s moves. ## Transcript Welcome to Couch Surfing, the show where accomplished guests look back at their big roles, their little roles and every role in between. I'm here with acting legend, Alan ****. Alan. Hello. Thanks for coming on my couch. My pleasure [ CROSSTALK ] [ MUSIC ] [ LAUGH ] [ SOUND ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So you must be the most successful person? Yes. Little Lisa Kudrow. Little Lisa Kudrow. Look how cute I look. You look adorable. It's my first ever film in America. That's right. And the first time I'd ever played an American. I have no idea why they cast me, actually. This dance routine is It is iconic. So this is your first threesome on camera. Actually, no. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] People actually ask me, I think I'm going to do it. They'll say, would you come and do the Romy and Michelle dance with me and my husband or me and my wife at our wedding? Are you serious? Yeah, very often. Well, I think they just think it would be a hilarious thing. And they think it's worth an ask, I might do it. But people I don't know. Right. [ LAUGH ] That is the most [ CROSSTALK ] And people often do it, and they send me videos. I like that, when people send, they have maybe the bride and the groom, and the bride's best friend or something, and they reenact it. How much of this was improvized? How much of this was actually choreographed? Well, I mean, when we choreographed we rehearsed it quite a lot, but In rehearsals you, cuz Mira was a bit of a dancer. So she did her ballet stuff. And I can dance a wee bit. S you put those bits in. [ LAUGH ] The trust fall, perfect. Yes [ CROSSTALK ] here comes the clean shot I think, here comes the clean shot, there we had, that's my favorite bit. And so you can avoid it when you're making up in rehearsing you can put your own stuff and once you get to this point now you're pretty cause [ UNKNOWN ] camera angle you got to the same again, again, again, again. 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