Over an illustrious 40-year career, Alan Cumming, 60, has appeared in an eclectic range of TV shows, films and stage plays — from the Emcee, full of licentious glee, in Sam Mendes’ productions of Cabaret to the weapons-grade camp host of The Traitors USA.
Grammy-nominated, he has won Emmy, Tony and Olivier awards and was named by Time magazine as one of the three most fun people in showbusiness (alongside Stanley Tucci and Cher, apparently). He’s played God and the Devil, sold out Carnegie Hall and written seven books. Now, the actor-writer-singer-activist-photographer has added artistic director to his talents, taking charge at Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Scotland where he recently announced his inaugural season next year.
You have quite a CV — have you ever been presented with an opportunity and thought “I’ll pass”?
I believe in saying yes – and why not? If you have the pizazz and passion for it, give it a go. I feel like the most successful things I’ve done are things I haven’t overthought. I’ve just had a funny feeling in my tummy, excited and inspired, which is what I’ve got about Pitlochry. It’s about celebrating Scottish talent and bringing new ideas and international stuff to Scotland.
When you were on Desert Island Discs, you said, “I do things I might fail at”. You’re not frightened of failure then?
I’m not. I mean, it’s not my favourite thing, but Patti Smith said to me, “Alan, it won’t be a failure if you’ve done your best”. It could be a failure in financial terms, but those things don’t matter to me. The biggest and most important critic to me is myself. I’ve found in my life that if you believe in something, your passion can inspire other people. This is why I think I’d make a good cult leader.
It feels harder than ever to be hopeful these days. As someone who lives in America, how do you remain optimistic?
Depressed isn’t quite the right word to describe how I feel about American politics. I’m disgusted. Appalled. I recently hosted The Jimmy Kimmel Show and I did a monologue about trans rights. Everyone went nuts and people said, “You’re gonna get deported,” but all I was doing was saying the truth. So few people do that because they’re scared of being deported, of being attacked. I have a confidence because I have another life, another passport. I feel more at home in Scotland right now.
The Traitors USA has been a huge hit, winning you four Emmys. Did you imagine it would be so successful?
I thought it was going to be good but I had no idea that it would become this cultural phenomenon. People love it because there’s a panto element to it: it’s a way for us to boo and hiss and scream at the baddies and cheer the goodies.
Would you go on the UK celebrity version of the show if asked?
I’d love to do it. It’d be so fascinating to see it from the other side because I see up-close how people make terrible decisions when they’re mesmerised by this psychological experiment. It’s around episode five or six that they start taking leave of their senses.
Christmas is coming up — how do your Christmasses now compare to those of your childhood?
I grew up on a country estate so I’d be selling Christmas trees until Christmas Eve. After that, Christmas was an old-school Scottish affair. Family-oriented, satsumas in your stocking, maybe a wee Advocaat… This Christmas, our new house in the Highlands isn’t ready so we’ll be upstate [in New York] in the Catskills. We have a life-sized neon horse – from The Threepenny Opera I did – which we decorate then spend time doing nothing, making delicious food and watching films.
You always seem busy — are you really able to “do nothing”?
It might seem like I’m not good at it but I really am. With this show I’m filming in Manchester, I’m living a monastic life, doing a lot of reading and enjoying not having to see people. When I finish that, I’m off to a wee hotel in the Highlands, just me on my own, to rest up.
You’re referring to Tip Toe, Russell T Davies’ new “suburban thriller” — what can you tell us?
I’ve been trying to work with Russell for 20 years – I did a little thing on Doctor Who last year but I mean one of his big dramas – and finally now I’m in the right place at the right time. It’s beautifully written, it’s prescient, and I regularly go home emotionally and physically battered. It’s about rage, how we got into this current febrile atmosphere where there’s all this anger towards marginalised people, and how we might escape it. David Morrissey and I play neighbours. I get locked out. We have an interaction and 10 days later, the world changes.
So it’s an anti-Reform drama?
It’s a drama about having a moral centre, and the vigilance required to maintain a kind society.
And finally, not since Gudrun Ure in Supergran has there been a high-profile Scottish superhero, but you’re reprising your 2003 X-Men character Nightcrawler, in next year’s Avengers movie, Doomsday. How does that feel?
It is insane and incredible. I imagine that somewhere there is a production manager having a breakdown, trying to schedule 28 of the world’s busiest actors into the same scenes. I did my bits very quickly, on green screen because there was no one else around. I can’t quite believe that I’m doing another superhero movie. I turned 60 recently…
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