Ballerinas Suit by KidSuper
Floral Collar & Lapel Flowers by Fleur'd Pins
Bryce Polo by by AG Jeans

Alan Cumming is beyond eclectic. His most recent projects include creating a solo dance theatre piece about the Scottish bard Robert Burns, lip-synching the protagonist in a documentary, touring internationally, two cabaret shows, hosting a reality competition show, producing a podcast series about a sperm bank heist, recording a duet with a Gaelic rapper and playing Sigmund Freud, a gangster opposite Liam Neason in a Neil Jordan film and an elderly woman with a pet crab in a Disney kids’ series. Perhaps not surprisingly, Time Magazine called him one of the three most fun people in show business (the others were Cher and Stanley Tucci).

Thirty years ago, his Hamlet stormed the West End and he was hailed as “an actor knocking at the door of greatness.” A quarter of a century ago he was a sensation as Cabaret’s Master of Ceremonies in a production that forever changed the Broadway landscape. A decade ago, his visceral, virtually one-man Macbeth was a stunning, transatlantic coup de theatre.

His screen work ranges from art house to blockbuster, cult to mainstream, but his performances are always indelible and some immortal: Mr. Floop in “Spy Kids,” Eli in “The Good Wife,” Nightcrawler in “X2: X Men United,” Sebastian in “The High Life,” ‘O’ in “Sex and the City,” Boris in “Goldeneye,” King James in “Doctor Who,” Sandy Frink in” Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion,” Mayor Menlove in “Schmigadoon,” and himself on “Broad City.”

Suit by Sprayground
Lapel Flower by Fleur'd Pins
Glasses by Talent Own

He is the author of six books including a New York Times #1 bestselling memoir, performs in concert regularly in halls around the world and co-owns his own, eponymous cabaret bar Club Cumming, a home for “all ages, all genders, all colors, all sexualities, where kindness is all and anything could happen.” The list of his collaborators over the years includes Liza Minnelli, Jeremy O. Harris, Jackie Chan, the Smurfs, David Bowie, The Simpsons, Robert Wilson, Stanley Kubrick, Jay Z, Bianca Del Rio, the Spice Girls, George Lucas, Terence Blanchard, KT Tunstall and not forgetting Dora the Explorer, Arthur and Elmo.

He is a two-time Tony and Olivier award winning theatre actor and was nominated for an Emmy for hosting the Tonys. In fact, he has been nominated for five Emmys, won a New York Emmy, a Scottish BAFTA, and a British Comedy Award. He is an Independent Spirities award-winning producer and National Board of Review winning director. He is a Grammy and multiple Golden Globe nominee. His portrait was hung in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. He has four honorary doctorates and more than forty awards for being a humanitarian, but, as he says, “awards mean nothing.”

Moschino Prince of Wales Jacket by Moschino
Moschino Metallic Long Sleeve Button Up by Moschino
Moschino Teal Twill Short by Moschino
Shoes by Florsheim Shoes
Flower by Stylist Own

How did you develop your love of theater, dance, and acting?
From a young age, I knew that I wanted to be an actor. A theatre in education group came to my primary school and put on a play in our lunch hall and I was mesmerized. Not just by them and the spell they weaved, but also with the realization that I was learning more about the subject the play was about (the Highland clearances after the battle of Culloden in 1746) than I had done when we studied it in our history class. I suppose at that moment I realized the value and the magic of theatre and of storytelling. The idea that facts are less influential than emotion. So mixing emotion with fact is the best way to communicate. And that I suppose is the essence of acting and all forms of art.

Did you have a vision for what you wanted your career to look like based on the actors you admired?
Absolutely not. The way my career has turned out is so far from anything I could have imagined. Also, I didn’t have actors whom I admired so ardently. Obviously, there were performances and actors that I really enjoyed, but no one whom I modeled myself upon and certainly there were no role models for me growing up. I actually think that’s a positive thing. I feel sometimes idolization of a person can sometimes lead to impersonation, and therefore not finding your true authentic self. But growing up in rural Scotland and even going to drama school in Glasgow did not suggest to me at all that I would one day be working in Hollywood and on Broadway. I thought that maybe one day I might move to London, but really the whole America part of my career was not in my mental periphery at all. I think of my career like a tumbleweed in a western. I have tumbled through life. I have said yes to things, I have been luckily in the right place at the right time, I have remained open to life and the possibility of experience. And that’s what’s got me to where I am now. There were many people as or more talented than I am at drama school, but I think my spirit, my openness has helped me both in my work itself, and in the trajectory of my career.

**Left:**
Suit by Sprayground
Lapel Flower by Fleur'd Pins
Shoes by MAGNANNI
https://magnanni.shoes/matteo
Glasses by Talent Own
**Right:**
Ballerinas Suit by KidSuper
Floral Collar & Lapel Flowers by Fleur'd Pins
Bryce Polo by by AG Jeans

You once said that “overthinking is the biggest crime in acting.” What are your thoughts on method acting?
I am not a fan of method acting. I totally believe you should think about your character’s backstory and imagine a life for them outside of the play or the film. But the idea that you should be in a scene with another actor or actors and then, in order to get to a certain emotional place you have to remove yourself from that scene, delve into your own life to find a similar situation that might evoke the same emotion needed for the scene, inhabit that and then return to the scene with the other actors all seems to be so unnecessary and indulgent. I said overthinking is the biggest crime in acting, because I feel acting should be like children playing. They just are. They decide to be a person or a thing and they become it. They don’t stop and go through a process or a method. That’s how I try to think too. I think that core acting is easy: you just have to pretend to be someone else and mean it. Obviously, there are lots of skills you can learn to help you, and I believe very strongly that technique is important, but a method or a process that removes you from the moment, and makes you focus entirely on yourself and not in the communal aspect of playing a scene with your fellow actors is to me selfish and disrespectful. I’m from the “try acting” school.

**Left:**
Outfit by HOMME PLISSÉ ISSEY MIYAKE
**Right:**
Sweater by A.Potts

What is the most mentally or physically arduous role you’ve done?
I realize that every few years I challenge myself in a way that makes me think I might fail. It’s a pattern. And those are usually physical as well as mental challenges. For example, in 2022, I devised and performed a solo dance theatre piece for The National Theatre of Scotland with the amazing choreographer and director Steven Hoggett. It was about the life of Robert Burns, the national bard of my homeland. I have danced throughout my career in some form, in plays and musicals, and I’ve always admired the discipline of dancers, and been a fan of seeing dance in performance. But I’ve never done an entire show that was so dance and movement heavy. I spoke a lot in it, so it wasn’t completely full of dance, but enough to make it an incredibly physically demanding and painful exercise and the recovery period afterwards was intense and long. I wouldn’t recommend becoming a dancer at age 57!! I also performed - again for The National Theatre of Scotland – an almost solo version of Macbeth set in a hospital. There were two other people in the cast, but I played all the parts aside from the doctor and the nurse. This was also incredibly physical and actually at several points I think the audience was scared and indeed worried about my well-being. At the end, I think they thought I’d drowned. It was one of those experiences that I found utterly exhilarating and that I never want to do again. Also, when I played Hamlet, it was such a confluence of so many difficult emotions for me as a young man and as an actor, and I really did go under after it. There have been some films in which I have acted that have challenged me emotionally but the thing about filming is you only have to do it once so no matter how arduous a day is on set; it is only a day. So, I think it’s always the theatre that I turn to be challenged to my limits, sometimes to the point of failure, and that I think is what keeps me on my toes: the fear of “can I do it this time?” “can I still do it?”

**Left:**
Outfit by CLARA SON
Sunglasses by Lacoste, style L2937
Sneakers by MAGNANNI
https://magnanni.shoes/Reddik
The TELENA in Butterscotch by MOSCOT
Right:
Quartier Hairy Monster Sweate by Études
Kiosque suiting pants by Études
Scarfhat hairy by Études
Glasses by Model’s own

What was it like hosting the reality show “The Traitors?” Why did you decide to take that opportunity?
I’m one of these people who is open to new experiences. I have always been eclectic in my work and in my taste. And I think eclecticism breeds eclecticism. Therefore, over the years I have done a variety of projects that initially seemed completely alien and weird for me to do. “The Traitors” definitely falls into that category.

When they asked me, I couldn’t understand it at all. But I took the meeting, and I realized that this wasn’t just a hosting gig, it was actually to play a character. I think for the show to work properly you need to believe that I am this dandy Scottish laird who lives in this castle and has invited all these people there to play a game. Obviously, I am still hosting and guiding the show, but I very much think of it as an acting job. Also, once I realized that and suggested to the producers that I should be something along the lines of a James Bond baddie, I then went to Sam Spector, the stylist, and he developed a look for me that took things to another level. It is hilarious to me that I have become this fashion icon (recently included in the New York Times “Most Stylish People” list of 2023) because of a reality competition show! But when you do something new like this that has no precedent, and there are no rules, then it’s exciting to do something new and different. And the clothes were certainly a part of that. I look absolutely insane in this show and I love it. I am also as obsessed with the game when we are shooting the series as audiences are when they watch it. Each night after the Round Table, when one of the players has been banished, I go home, but I cannot go to sleep until I get a text from the producer, telling me which of the faithful has been murdered that night. It’s completely obsessive, and a totally unexpected delight. Another example of why it’s important to stay open to life and new experiences and not to be set in your way.

You are currently on tour with two live shows “Och” and “Oy” (with the NPR broadcaster Ari Shapiro) and a solo show “Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age” in which you touch on the theme of aging. How do you retain your youthfulness and eclecticism when society might have a certain perception of how older people should behave?
I called the show. “Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age” because I feel it’s important to point out to people how much society dictates to us how we should behave, especially as we get older. But why? And who are these people who get to tell us? For me, I feel being curious about life, staying open to the possibility of new experiences keeps anyone youthful and engaged. And also flouting the notions and ideas of how you should behave, of what you should wear, or what you should think and feel is a really important, rebellious act that I also think contributes to feeling youthful. But it’s not a desperate measure to stay or look young at all costs. I like being almost 60. I just want to live the life I want to live and keep enjoying the myriad of new and fascinating things and people I can engage with. It’s that simple, stay curious and you will feel younger. And when you feel younger, I think you give off an air of seeming younger. I just think too many people switch off and settle, and that’s such a shame because they miss out on so much.

CREW CREDITS:
PhotoBook Editor-In-Chief: Alison Hernon
PhotoBook Creative Director + Photographer + Producer: Mike Ruiz + @mikeruiz.one
Talent: Alan Cumming
Videographer: Zapman Creative Haus
Fashion Stylist: Alison Hernon at Exclusive Artists
Groomer: Laura Costa for Exclusive Artists using Kevin Murphy
Fashion Market Assistant: Skylar Elizabeth
Fashion Stylist Interns: Richelle Hodson + Hannah Bressler
Tearsheets by Daniel López, Art Director, PhotoBook Magazine
Interview by Sneha KC, Contributor, PhotoBook Magazine