Alan Cumming, 59: ‘We Overly Worship the Altar of Youth’

You’ve played some memorable villains in your career, from the Russian computer programmer Boris in GoldenEye to Fegan Floop in Spy Kids. Do you have a favorite?

A lot of people associate me with playing villainous people, but quite a lot of (those characters) have turned out to be quite nice. Like Mr. Floop, he was just being used by people. I quite enjoy playing people who are misunderstood. They have the best lines. In the second season of Schmigadoon!, I played a sort of Sweeney Todd character who was going to make pies out of the orphans from the little orphanage. He was just grief stricken; he wasn't really evil. I love the fact that you can have these crazy people and they have a redemption.

The Traitors' concept is pretty similar to the party game Mafia. Are you a big fan of these sleuthing-style games?

I've only played Mafia a couple of times in my life, and I did enjoy it. But the murder ones are not really my bag. I tend to like simpler parlor games like charades, when you take famous people's names out of a bowl and you've got to mime them. I love Taboo. That's one of my favorite games to play. I don't get my kicks from pretending to kill people, strangely. 

"The Traitors" is a reality competition series in which contestants try to identify and eliminate a group of secretly chosen "traitors" while competing in challenges to earn money.

Euan Cherry/Peacock

Unlike a lot of reality-show hosts, you seem to be playing a character on The Traitors. He’s a little campy and larger than life. How did you come up with your host persona?

I think of him as a dandy Scottish laird and sometimes a James Bond villain. He’s this eccentric host with a big love of fashion and mischief making people behave badly towards each other. He's not like me at all. I mean, he looks like me, but that's the only thing we share.

What about the outfits? Do any of those outlandish clothes come from your own wardrobe?

It's hilarious because everyone thinks of me as this fashionista. I do enjoy clothes and fashion as much as the next person. But I would not wear the kind of things that he wears in The Traitors. I do get to keep a lot of the clothes. But if I go out with them, everyone's going to know that they're from The Traitors. So I keep them for splashy showbiz things. Some of it you can't wear every day because it's so nuts. If you need to get dressed up, I'm your man. Whenever my friends have openings or premieres or weddings, they always come to my house and raid my closets.

You’ve toured over the last few years in a one-man show called Alan Cumming is Not Acting His Age. Accusing someone of “not acting their age” is not usually meant as a compliment. But you think otherwise?

I think acting your age is allowing other people to make decisions for you about how you should behave and what is age-appropriate. I encourage people to live and not be tied down with other people's expectations of what you should be doing. If you want to do something, go and do it. We overly worship the altar of youth. It's not good for our mental health. As a culture, we need to get better at seeing the beauty in aging and the beauty in things that are not young.

You’ll be 60 later this month. What most excites you about entering your seventh decade?

Partly the fact that I can say, “I'm 60.” I can't quite believe it. But I'm doing things that I really enjoy. And I'm in a stage of my life where I'm taking on some new responsibilities, like I've just become the artistic director of the Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Scotland. It's something I've never done before and it's really exciting. It’s great to be doing something new, but also be giving back in a way, back to my country and back to the arts that I came from. It's a really lovely time actually.

You won your first Emmy last September, for best reality show host (for The Traitors.) How did it feel to finally get that award at this stage of your career?

I've been nominated about six times for various things, and The Good Wife quite a few times, so to win two for hosting a competition reality show was kind of perfect. It was completely out of left field, completely nuts and unexpected. I've always approached things a little differently. So it was a really lovely moment. And then right after the awards, I went to dinner with my husband and then went to the airport to fly back to Glasgow, where I was working on a film with Brian Cox. That’s pretty typical of my life.

You opened your own bar in New York City called Club Cumming. How often do you visit?

I've not been to Club Cumming much this year, but I might pop down tonight. I love it because it sort of feels like this constant in my life. Whenever I go, it's always these lovely people who work there, and it's just got a great sense of community and family. Our ethos is about kindness and that anything can happen. That's our motto.

You’ve starred on Broadway, acted in blockbuster movies and written best-selling books. What’s next on your bucket list?

I think the notion of a bucket list is kind of wrong, actually. If you want to do something, go and do it. Don't put it on a list and think, I want to do this before I die. What if you die tomorrow? Just go and do the things. Seize the day. A couple of years ago, I decided I'd like to do a dance piece, and I ended up doing this one-man dance-theater piece about (Scottish poet) Robert Burns. I just wanted to use my body in a different way.

What about your life now would shock your younger self?

There's so many things. Like living in America. I'd never even been to America until I was 30. Or that I'm married to a man, or that I live in this country and in the Scottish Highlands, or the fact that wherever I go in the world, people know who I am, things like that. That's something I would never have expected (when I was younger). What I would have hoped for back then is that I’d end up doing what I want to do and I’d still be as eclectic. That's been a constant all my life. I think that's more important than all that other stuff.