{"id":429761,"date":"2026-05-07T09:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/429761\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T09:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:45:13","slug":"i-told-my-agent-i-never-want-to-do-the-baftas-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/429761\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I told my agent I never want to do the Baftas again\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alan Cumming grabs his phone, eager to show me his latest discovery \u2014 the Delta One lounge at JFK airport, through which he passed en route to Los Angeles the previous week. \u201cLook!\u201d he exclaims in his alluring Highland purr, showing me something resembling a small microwave. \u201cIt\u2019s a machine that cleans, then dries your glasses \u2014 a carwash for glasses! Next time I use that lounge I\u2019m going to take every pair I own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reclining in a leather chair in a London hotel on a Saturday morning, he\u2019s wiry and alert at the end of a week that began with a flight from Edinburgh to LA and back, via New York. He displays only slight weariness when his husband (previously civil partner) of 19 years, the American illustrator Grant Shaffer, calls from Inverness airport on his way to their Highland home unable to collect the hire car. \u201cSixt do not rent to celebrities, sportsmen or royals,\u201d Cumming explains after hanging up. \u201cIsn\u2019t that ridiculous?\u201d He dictates a text to his assistant. \u201cGet us a car from non-f***wit car rental people. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actor, writer, TV presenter and host of America\u2019s version of The Traitors, Cumming, 61, takes delight in the small things. To quote his friend the actress Lisa Kudrow\u2019s tribute in Time magazine, which named him one of its \u201c100 most influential people\u201d of 2026: \u201cHe chooses joy, he chooses glee.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is in London for two days to promote a wide array of projects \u2014 notably Tip Toe, a five-part Channel 4 drama by the Queer as Folk and Doctor Who screenwriter Russell T Davies, and his first season as artistic director of the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, in the Perthshire town of 3,000 inhabitants that lies 50 miles from Cumming\u2019s home town of Carnoustie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheAs host of the US version of The Traitors in JanuaryGetty images<\/p>\n

He\u2019s amused at his life as an \u201cold, rich traveller person\u201d. It is at total odds with his childhood on a vast country estate, where his father, the head forester, mentally and physically abused Cumming and his older brother, as he recorded in his heartbreaking 2014 memoir Not My Father\u2019s Son. \u201cI was never safe,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI never knew exactly when it would come, and that, I know, was his favourite part.\u201d He recalls how his father once dragged him out of the kitchen, threw him on a workbench and held him down \u201clike an animal\u201d as he shaved his head with rusty sheep clippers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cumming escaped, via drama school in Glasgow, to an eclectic career packed with theatre successes, including a Tony in 1998 for his Emcee in Cabaret and an Olivier award in 1991 for his lead role in Accidental Death of an Anarchist, which he also co-adapted. He has starred in blockbusters such as GoldenEye and X2: X-Men United (his character, Nightcrawler, returns this year in Avengers: Doomsday) and hit TV shows including The Good Wife and Schmigadoon!<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also in demand as an awards host, hence his stint at the Baftas last year for its television awards and in February for its film awards at the Royal Festival Hall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The latter turned, in Cumming\u2019s words, into a \u201cshitshow\u201d after the BBC broadcast racially offensive outbursts by the Scottish Tourette\u2019s activist John Davidson. Davidson was in the audience for I Swear, the film about how his life had been blighted by the lack of understanding that his taboo utterings were completely involuntary. Although aware of his condition, the BBC seated him near a microphone. Then, despite a two-hour delay, it broadcast Davidson shouting the n-word while two black actors, Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo, were on stage. They were \u201cdisgusted\u201d and \u201crepulsed\u201d. For a few days the deeply distressed Davidson was in the eye of a huge storm led by people who, again, failed to grasp the nature of his condition.<\/p>\n

\"Profilematt holyoak for the sunday times magazine. Suit and vest by ISSEY MIYAKE HOMME PLISSE<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an international scandal. Then poor John gave this interview saying, \u2018I\u2019m not a racist. I called Alan Cumming a paedophile too.\u2019\u200a\u201d This was when Cumming was introducing a segment featuring Paddington Bear. \u201cOh great! He\u2019s equal opportunities and my name and \u2018paedophile\u2019 were in the same sentences all over the world,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Yet during the event Cumming had no idea that he\u2019d been called a paedophile or of the subsequent racial slurs. \u201cI had a thing in my ear and you can\u2019t hear very specifically what\u2019s happening. I haven\u2019t actually asked them, but I don\u2019t imagine that Delroy and Michael B Jordan heard the actual slur either, \u2014 they were probably just, like, \u2018Well, there\u2019s someone shouting in the audience.\u2019\u200a\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cumming was still oblivious to what had just happened when he read an apology from the teleprompter. \u201cI watched myself back. I was very smiley, I didn\u2019t do it with the gravitas and tone I would have used had I known. That pissed me off.<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT000001626527\"Performing a number from Cabaret at the 1998 Tony awardsReuters<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was bad, bad, bad, bad leadership,\u201d he continues. \u201cBad people who weren\u2019t doing their jobs properly, who really had not prepared and let people down.\u201d Cumming, and the Bafta audience, hadn\u2019t been warned Davidson\u2019s outbursts might be offensive. \u201cThey just said, \u2018There\u2019ll be noise.\u2019 You could say they didn\u2019t know, but they clearly did, because apparently John had said the n-word at a party the day before. They were thinking of shouting at me during the dress rehearsal to see what I\u2019d do, but they didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many in the public eye keep shtoom for fear of pile-ons, but Cumming is vocal about what he believes in. He openly supported Scottish independence in 2014 alongside Nicola Sturgeon, with whom he remains friends. He publicly criticises President Trump, having held dual UK-US citizenship since 2008. He\u2019s best known for his gay rights activism: in 1999 he came out as bisexual after being married to the actress Hilary Lyon from 1985 to 1993. He shot a \u201cdrama-queeny\u201d naked cover for Out Magazine to end incessant speculation about his sexuality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ActorWith his wife, the actress Hilary Lyon, in 1993. The pair divorced that yearShutterstock Editorial<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT001077038139\"Coming out as bisexual in 1999<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s starring in Tip Toe as Leo, the vivacious owner of a bar in Manchester\u2019s Gay Village, who in the opening scenes is murdered by his neighbour Clive, a dour, homophobic electrician. The drama is an ambitious state-of-the-nation work that addresses everything from urban decline, working-class emasculation, post-Brexit fury (on both sides) and the rise of websites such as OnlyFans. It risks didacticism but swerves it because Davies\u2019s script \u201cis so nuanced, with no black and white, so with every single character you can see why they\u2019ve arrived at this place\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A central theme is the growing hostility and increase in hate crimes towards LGBTQ people. Leo and his friends bewail how much better things were 15 years ago. Does Cumming agree? \u201cI\u2019m not Leo,\u201d he clarifies. \u201cBut it\u2019s a very scary time. There\u2019s been a huge backlash from populist political movements that use fear to galvanise against all the things that had been getting better, a backlash against trans people, queer people, people of colour, against that notion of accepting people into your community from elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a normalisation of violence and hatred and what Tip Toe does really well is show how this rhetoric going unchecked manifests in violence. Words matter, and all these words that were slow and insidious are now less insidious and more blatant, and what it means is that people die and we don\u2019t mind. Even just the other week when Trump was saying, \u2018I\u2019m going to annihilate an entire race,\u2019 people weren\u2019t, like, \u2018How dare you?\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n

Cumming is outraged by the Supreme Court\u2019s recent ruling that trans women are not considered women for the purpose of single-sex provision. Conversation turns to probably the world\u2019s most famous transgender person, Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as the Olympic gold-medallist Bruce Jenner, now the Kardashians\u2019 stepmother and an active Republican. \u201cShe got her passport renewed and it said she was a man. So now she\u2019s pissed off and appealing to Trump. What the f*** did you think was going to happen? Have you not been reading the news?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT001077036284\"In Edinburgh with his friend Nicola Sturgeon in 2021Alan Cumming \/ Instagram<\/p>\n

We move on to the Harry Potter author, JK Rowling, who posted a picture of herself smoking a cigar on her yacht to celebrate the Supreme Court ruling. \u201cI found everything about that photo so sad. What do you think? That trans people shouldn\u2019t exist? I can\u2019t stand it. Feminism has been forever blighted by these people saying, \u2018Oh, we\u2019re for equality, just not your equality.\u2019 I\u2019m a feminist. There should be equality between men and women, but also between trans men and women. It\u2019s always the people who are most in trouble who get a good kicking in the teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n

When appearing as guest host on the late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! last year, Cumming gave an impassioned monologue about the state of America. \u201cSome of my team were frightened I\u2019d be deported after that. But I wasn\u2019t scared for myself. I live in a rarefied bubble and have another passport, another life in a country that\u2019s progressive, whose values are aligned to mine. I get death threats on my Instagram. But I don\u2019t count them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Amatt holyoak for the sunday times magazine. Shirt and vest by ALEXANDER YETMAN, Trousers by CECILE TULKENS, Shoes by SEBASTIAN TAREK, Glasses models own<\/p>\n

At least most of the time he doesn\u2019t. He recalls one occasion \u201cwhich really scared me\u201d at his remote home in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. \u201cPeople had been saying on Instagram, \u2018We\u2019re coming to get you and do blah blah blah to you.\u2019 Then the lights went out in my house. I had this vision of people coming up the hill with pitchforks to attack me. Of course nobody came. The lights going out was a coincidence. I was not irrational to think this. But that was a turning point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both times Trump has been elected Cumming has sworn he\u2019ll leave the US, yet he still has his Catskills and Manhattan homes, as well as his New York cabaret joint, Club Cumming, where he regularly comperes. \u201cI\u2019m definitely spending less time in America, but in New York last week it felt so great.\u201d The election of the Democratic socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani has \u201cmade such a difference to the feeling of hope. New York is such an island anyway, literally floating off the coast of America. But before Mamdani, kids who work at my club were saying how they worried about going on the subway. You don\u2019t hear that any more. It\u2019s heartening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MichaelWith his husband, Grant Shaffer, in 2009Getty images<\/p>\n

Cumming has stated he made a deliberate decision \u201cto say no to shame\u201d and \u201cto stand in the light\u201d. He has always quashed narratives that success \u201chealed\u201d his childhood trauma and that his work ethic is a rebuke to his father for calling him \u201cworthless\u201d. Yet, he concedes in his memoir, his childlike, mischievous air may well be the result of \u201cliving my life backwards. I had to be a grown-up when I\u2019d been a little boy, now I was tending to the little boy inside who never had the chance to properly play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now he\u2019s touring Scotland with the stage musical version of The High Life, the cabin crew sitcom that was his 1990s TV breakthrough. He films The Traitors at Ardross Castle, near Inverness, directly after Claudia Winkleman has wrapped the British version. His show features mostly reality stars \u2014 \u201cLord of the Flies with Botox\u201d \u2014 and he adopts the persona of a \u201cdandy Scot laird. In one show I dressed as a coffin! It was hilarious.\u201d This year the format has become so popular that he\u2019ll film a second \u201creal people\u201d version.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TelevisionIn the cabin crew sitcom The High Life with Siobhan Redmond and Forbes Masson, 1994Shutterstock<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Cumming discovered this beloved arts institution, founded in 1951, three years ago while filming a travelogue. \u201cI thought, what the f***? It\u2019s incredible.\u201d A year later he applied online for the artistic director role, \u201clike a normal person\u201d. When he won it he promised to be a \u201cpied piper\u201d, luring famous friends, as seen when Ian McKellen and Graham Norton showed up to the queer festival he organised in January.<\/p>\n

His debut season starts this month and includes the first revival of the Broadway and West End musical Once, King Lear with the Scottish actress Maureen Beattie in the title role, and Simon Russell Beale playing Liberace in I\u2019ll Be Seeing You, a new play Cumming is directing. Cumming will also star as Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady.<\/p>\n

Ticket sales are healthy but Cumming ruffled feathers by replacing the theatre\u2019s popular repertory programme, with separate runs for each show. \u201cIn my first year I had a little trouble,\u201d he concedes. \u201cI felt what I brought far outweighed my shortcomings of being someone who\u2019d never run a building before. I\u2019ve changed a lot and that includes getting rid of toxic energy that is not helpful to anyone. My energy doesn\u2019t work with closed-off people. But when all this stuff was thrown in my face, I just thought, you know what? I\u2019ll not take any money.\u201d He hasn\u2019t drawn a salary since. He doesn\u2019t need the money, he admits; The Traitors alone makes him a fortune.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By now Cumming\u2019s people are itching for him to move on to his next engagement. He stands up, midway through indignantly relating how Bafta apologised and asked to talk to him. \u201cI was, like, \u2018What? No! I don\u2019t want to talk to you any more.\u2019\u200a\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Alanmatt holyoak for the sunday times magazine. Suit, vest and belt by ISSEY MIYAKE HOMME PLISSE<\/p>\n

So he\u2019ll be back to host next year? Cumming laughs. \u201cRight before it started, I said to my agent, \u2018Remind me, I never want to do this again.\u2019\u200a\u201d He was already fed up at how the organisation had botched his travel plans and how no food was available at rehearsals when he was hungry. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a tough gig. You\u2019re trying to be funny for a bunch of people who are used to very generic, middle-of-the-road things, so you\u2019re fighting against the quirky personality they want you to bring to it. That\u2019s a battle.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

His team virtually drag him off now. The sense is Cumming has once again overstepped some invisible celebrity barrier with this diatribe. Not that he cares. As he\u2019d said earlier, \u201cI always think, God, how sad people think you\u2019re really brave and noble just because you\u2019re speaking the truth.\u201d
Tip Toe is on Channel 4 this month. Pitlochry Festival Theatre\u2019s 2026 season runs from May 23 to December 31; pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Opening image: Matt Holyoak for The Sunday Times Magazine. Grooming: Sven Bayerbach at Carol Hayes Management using Maria Nila and Hourglass. Styling: David Nolan at Monday Artists. Knitted top by Cecile Tulkens, jeans by Martine Rose. Special thanks to The Standard, London, Townhouse 8 Suite<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alan Cumming grabs his phone, eager to show me his latest discovery \u2014 the Delta One lounge at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-429761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}