~ by joel martens ~
What can one say about this adorable Scotsman? Beside the fact that his accent is totally tantalizing, this self-proclaimed “naughty boy” has a wickedly-irreverent sense of humor. On top of that, he can sing and dance, his acting chops are legendary, he writes, directs and produces, campaigns for LGBTQ rights, designs wallpaper, is a vociferous campaigner for Scottish Independence, has a fragrance called Cumming, owns a bar called Club Cumming and is known to love a great party. His accomplishments are profuse, and yet he’s sweet as can be and totally approachable.
Eclectic doesn’t begin to cover the man. Time Magazine called him one of the three most fun people in show business. Did you catch him hosting the Tony Awards? The New York Times described him as a bawdy, counter-cultural sprite. Speaking of which, he’s been one of those on film, too, remember X2: X-Men United’s teleporting superhero, Nightcrawler? The Guardian once called him European, weird and sexually ambiguous. Testimony to that are both his performances, one as the emcee in Broadway’s Cabaret revival and the other as a transvestite party promoter on Showtime’s The L Word.
The man is as versatile a human being as anyone out there. Now, I’ve definitely got a crush…
Lucky me, I get to have a little chat with this one-man powerhouse…
I’m amazed by the body of work you’ve done, it’s really quite astonishing and you’ve made interesting choices as far as characters and roles. What’s the psychology behind how you choose them?
It’s based on my gut instinct at the time. I love the roles and the things I do and because I love to work, sometimes a role just jumps out at me and grabs me. Then I do make a lot of my own work; my writing and singing in shows and the like. I do what I like really at the end of the day. (Laughs)
Last time we talked you were doing Club Cumming parties after your shows. Now you actually own a club with the same name in New York, I love that. Tell me a little about how it began and what being an owner of a performance space is like, as compared to a performer in one.
I started doing the Club Cumming parties after some of my concerts, it was just something I did in my dressing room. When I was in Edinburgh with my show doing the International Festival, we did some really big Club Cumming parties after some of the concerts. It was sort of a perfect way to do the show, me deejaying and playing along, having guests, having sort of fun and games with the audience. Circumstances developed and a bar was available and my friend Daniel, who had worked some of my shows, said we could do the actual Club Cumming. It’s been like a year and a half of it and it’s been really great that we’ve been able to make the spirit of the parties manifest in to an actual bar.
From what I’ve read, it seems like it’s a unique experience as far as the bar scene in New York. It makes me think a place up here in Los Angeles called Rockwell Table + Stage.
Yeah Rockwell, my friend Frank just played there actually. (Laughs) What’s been really cool is a lot of people say it reminds them of old New York, in terms of the mix of people who come. My intention was always to get a range in age, gender and sexualities to come together. Also, to have a venue for performers, we have performances every night and that’s also lovely. It’s actually become a sort of popular venue to play in New York City, which is hilarious and completely surprising. A real estate friend of mine just sent a description of an apartment on East 6th Street that said, “It’s just meters away from the much-loved Club Cumming.” (Laughs) I love that.
Did you ever see yourself as a club owner?
No. It’s funny, I was just talking to Lea Delaria about it. Do you know her?
Oh god, yes! I just interviewed her recently, I had so much fun and we laughed so much!
She’s fantastic. She is opening a club in Province- town, she just bought the place. I’ve known her for years and years… We went to Israel together, were Grand Marshals for Tel Aviv Pride and spent a week together, which of course was hilarious.
I just recently spoke to one of your other compadre’s too, Kristin Chenoweth. What a hoot she is.
She’s insane.
Behind that sweet little innocent face…
Lurks the mind of a trucker! (Laughs)
This is way too much fun. (Laughs) Let’s talk a little bit about your television show, Instinct. It’s such a cool series and you’ve been picked up for another season now, right?
We’ve done the second season and that’s coming out in April, now we’re waiting to see if we’ve got a third. I really liked the first season, but it was quite a lot of pressure. People were anxious about the meanness of the show and the fact there was a gay character in the lead. Everyone was very tense about the style and tone of it and the interactions with Bojana Novakovic (Detective Lizzie Needham on the show) and I, and my relationship with my husband, Andy (Daniel Ings).
It was hard to put that to one side and get on with it. What’s interesting is, in the second season all the things the network and the studio had been worried about, were what made people like the show and made it different. So in a way, they became our assets and not bad things.
photo by jeffrey auger
It’s one of the interesting things about the way that gay characters are portrayed in the media lately. Specifically, the idea of what makes them a character isn’t so much just about their sexuality. For Dr. Reinhart it’s just an aspect of who he is. It’s not the thing that defines him as a human being.
I often get really annoyed when people use your sexuality as a pretext. No one would ever say “Straight actor so-and-so…” I guess it’s just part of the journey we have to go through to have equal rights—the idea that if you’re fighting for equality—people need a pretext when you’re a minority of some kind. You would never, ever do that for a straight actor or anyone else for that matter. That’s what is really great about Instinct, it isn’t a problem to solve, or anything that defines him specifically. I really like that.
What else drew you to the character and how much input do you get to have as an actor?
It’s based on a book by James Patterson. When I read it, I was quite shocked to be honest, that one of his novels would have at the forefront of the story this very positive, same-sex relationship. That’s the other thing that attracted me to it. I met with the showrunner Michael Rauch and I really liked his ideas about how to handle it all. They’ve been very conscious about having a balance in the writer’s room of LGBTQ people and people of color, to make sure that all the different storylines came from people who were qualified. GLAAD was really helpful with the writers too and really wanted to make sure that it was a healthy process and portrayal.
This moment in history we’re living in is interesting. In particular when you look at what’s happened as far as portrayals in the media and as far as characters on television and in film. There’s been a real change, socially, though politically we’re in reverse right now.
I hope that’s true. It’s an interesting thing because we’re living under a very oppressive regime and a regime that is actually very dangerous to our rights and to our livelihoods. But, at the same time it seems that great messages are being put into the world. It is almost as if it inspires people to be more and go further in these fights we have for equality. The fact is, we must always be vigilant.
That is so true, it’s easy to take such things for granted. So, let’s talk a bit about what people can expect from your shows here in California.
It’s called Legal Immigrant and it’s about my ten years as a citizen of this country. I wanted to make it a celebration of immigration and about the great things immigration offers: all the great songs and the great culture we have in this country because of immigrants. I talk about my experience of coming here and how that’s changed.
Getting older and what it means to have been Scottish first. A little bit too about how ironic it is to have anti-immigration views, considering America is a country built on the backs of immigrants. I sort of equate anti-immigration with being anti-American. Obviously, that can be a little contentious, but most of the show is a celebration and me talking about my last 10 years of living here.
Something else I saw that you’re doing is the play Daddy, in New York. It looks and sounds very interesting… your character seems like it would be a real challenge to play. What can you tell me about it?
It’s a new play written by an African American writer, Jeremy O. Harris, about interracial, intergenerational relationships. It’s quite sensational and it brings up a lot of ideas, things that are very difficult. The whole play is a challenge and is a very, intense evening for everybody. It’s not a pleasant sort of play to do as an actor, I’m in and out of a swimming pool on stage, it’s pretty insane. The play is about the things we don’t talk about enough, race and racial issues That’s what I like about Jeremy, he’s kind of brazen and shoves these things out front and makes you confront them. That’s why I wanted to be a part of it.
That’s the great power of theatre and the arts, it pushes our comfort levels as a society.
Yes absolutely, that’s what it’s for. What I like is that after Daddy people say, “It’s a lot to process.” I’m like, “Yeah, tell me about it!” I’ve been doing this play for months now and I’m still processing the experience of it. Some of the things Andre says, it can be a lot, but that’s what should be happening in the theatre, it should challenge you.
Catch Alan Cumming’s Legal Immigrant at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido on Tuesday, April 16. For tickets and more information, go to artcenter.org.
For more information on Alan Cumming, his career and what else he is up to, go to alancumming.com.
