Tony-winning and four-time Emmy-nominated actor Alan Cumming, best known for his Broadway role of the Emcee in Cabaret, as well as film and TV roles in GoldenEye, The Good Wife, and Schmigadoon!, among so much more, has opened up about his career in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly (via Deadline).
He reflected on past roles, and explained his belief that the Marvel movie X2: X-Men United was the “gayest” film he’s done, which, he says, is saying a lot:
“I think the X-Men film I’m in is the gayest film that I’ve ever done, and that’s me saying that. It’s got a queer director, lots of queer actors in it.
I love the fact that something so mainstream and so in the comic book world is so queer. I think, in a way, those sorts of films really help people understand queerness, because you can address it in an artistic way, and everyone is less scared of the concept.
It’s an allegory about queerness, about people having these great gifts and really great, powerful things that they have to hide to exist. Queer people understand what that’s all about.”
In a post on his official website, Cumming said he “had never heard of the X-Men” before talking to the director about the role of Nightcrawler, a superhero associated with X-Men who has the power of teleportation.
“The character is really interesting, the message of the film (tolerance of others who are different from us) was very timely and unusual for a Hollywood blockbuster, but the real drag was having to spend over four hours a day having two men poke my face. Then there were the harnesses for the tail and for flying, the feet, the hands — which made going to the loo a group effort, the teeth, the lenses, oh God don’t get me started.”
I had never made the correlation between the X-Men and the Queer community before, but it makes perfect sense. That’s a cool way to look at it, and makes it relatable to another group of people, which is what’s great about these kinds of stories.
Not many people can outwardly relate to being a superhero, but many of us can find a way to relate to their story or their experience in another way.
Happy Pride month!