Alan Cumming. I mean. In the words of Dame Shirley Bassey, ‘Where do I begin?!’ Seriously, he has one of those careers that is so enjoyably extensive & diverse, that it’s a daunting prospect trying to fit all your questions into the time you have. But this would be the case whether I had five minutes or five hours.

Goldeneye may have been the first time I clocked Alan but it was Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion and that threeway dance to Cyndi Lauper’s ‘True Colours’ that I took note. That’s an iconic moment of cinema right there. Then there was Spiceworld, Josie & The Pussycats & The Flintstones. Fun, campy roles in cult movies,  Alan had them in the bag.

Then there was Sex & The City and The L Word – yes, of course we discuss that scene. Playing the Emcee in Cabaret numerous times. Doing a one-man Macbeth. Performing shows with Liza on Fire Island. We could go on, but this ain’t no Wikipedia page. You can check that out here.

In our exclusive chat with him, yes exclusive, we discuss the high LGBT ratio of actors on The Good Wife, Geri Horner née Halliwell seeing him in Hamlet, how he’s only seen Romy & Michelle twice and what’s next post-The Good Wife.

First up, I’m gutted The Good Wife is coming to an end. Which scene has been your favourite for Eli?
Hmm. This is a difficult question as I’ve been doing this show for six years and I have a very bad memory. But I think one of my earliest favorites was the scene when I was really mean to Alicia’s son’s girlfriend, and I said something like, ‘She’ll get pregnant at 16, have an abortion at 17 and be a Dental Hygienist until the day she dies.’ I just loved saying that.
Also, I really liked the stuff this season when Eli revealed to Alicia that he had deleted the voicemail, just because it was a whole range of different emotions for Eli that we’d never seen before and that was very refreshing. But I think I love him when he’s at his best which is being totally stressed, and ruthless, and furious, and overreacting…and using his eyebrows more than is really necessary!

The show has included a lot of LGBT actors/characters. Any insight on that?
Well, the show shoots in New York, so a lot of the actors that come on as guest stars are theatre people and there are a lot of  theatre actors who are LGBT types! It’s a kind of chicken and egg situation.
I really enjoyed the way the show has had good storylines about LGBT issues and challenged people’s prejudices via some of the court stories on those topics. It’s not like it’s written by gay people or anything. They’re just really intelligent and thoughtful people who created this show and characters. Like I said, it’s a show that shoots in New York, and if you film in New York, you’re going to get a high proportion of homos coming in to be guest stars, you just are.

What does it mean to hear Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time after all these years?
The scary thing is that it’s twenty years since we shot Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion. Twenty fucking years. So what’s funny for me now, hearing that song, is that I know Cyndi Lauper. She played Pirate Jenny in The Threepenny Opera when I did it on Broadway about ten years ago. Then I had a fundraiser for Obama for the last election and I got her to come and sing with me, and we sang ‘Time After Time’ together, so that was pretty amazing. So the song feels really different to how it felt twenty years ago, because then it was just some pop song and now it’s got more personal resonance.
When we were actually shooting the scene it was not at all romantic, it was hilarious and also we were just kind of exhausted because we did it so many times, but we were just laughing like drains the entire time.
That scene, actually that film, is incredible because it’s sort of a real cultural touchstone for people and I feel guilty that I’ve only ever seen it twice. I don’t remember it as well as everybody else I meet in the world. But that dance especially, has become really iconic and it’s kind of crazy. I feel that I sort of forget that I’m a part of it and I’m really happy that I am.

I love Parker Posey. You guys have worked together loads of times. Do you scout potential roles for each other when working on a new Project?
I love Parker Posey too. I mean, I was a big fan of hers before we met. I kind of knew her before we worked on Josie and the Pussycats, which is actually a really great favorite in terms of my Parker experience. The two of us were in Vancouver for months doing this crazy film, just being two pantomime villains and having an absolute blast. I remember Parker wrapped before me and I said to her, ‘Oh God, please don’t go because now I’ll be the oldest person in this film.’ And that was like, fiften years ago! On The Good Wife, I asked if she could be my wife. I thought she’d be great and she was. If I’m ever in a situation where I have some power about casting people, I would always cast Parker because she’s just fantastic.
I think one of the most amazing things she’s done and one of the most beautiful performances I’ve seen on television in years and years is the episode she did of Louie, the Louis C.K. show. She plays this crazy girl he goes on a date with. Absolutely… she’s a genius. And mad as cheese, I love her.

Spiceworld is nineteen this year. Was filming that as chaotic as it looked?
It was chaotic, it was a beautiful chaos. The Spice Girls were at the height of their fame and wherever they went, they were just followed by this hysterical crowd of screaming fans and I mean screaming. When I hear people screaming like that, if you close your eyes, it’s like the Titanic sinking and everyone screaming as it goes down.
So being with the Spice Girls was like constantly having the Titanic sink!! But I had a great time, I absolutely loved it. I was in it because Geri saw me playing Hamlet a few years prior. I’d been making some films in America, then my agent said , ’The Spice Girls are making a movie and they want you to be in it.’ I was like ‘What? Of course!” Then I discovered it was because Geri saw my Hamlet!!
And the thing I loved most of all was just getting to know these girls who were the biggest stars in the world at the time and they taught me the dance moves to all their songs. So now I know all the dance moves to The Spice Girls’ songs because I was taught them BY The Spice Girls.

I love your cult films like The Flintstones & Josie & The Pussycats. When it comes to projects like that how important is the box office success?
I have to say, box office success is not a factor in my thinking of why I do something. Perhaps it should be, but really, I’ve been around the block so long that I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s more important to enjoy the experience of doing something. If you worry so much about how it’s going to turn out and how much money it’s going to make, then you are in a constant state of yearning. You’re looking to the future all the time and not enjoying the present.
Also, in a movie like that, you’ve got so little control. You can have a great time and it turns out to be a crock of shit or you can have a miserable time and it can be a really great film you’re really proud of. Both of those things have happened to me on numerous occasions.
Obviously I’m aware of the business aspect of things and my power and place in the world. If you have a big box office success then it’s easier to get other jobs and maybe get films made that otherwise wouldn’t be, but I’m not one of those actors that talks about box office and all that stuff. I actually hate all that. That’s not why I wanted to be an actor. I really don’t care. Obviously, I’m glad when I’m in hits, but it’s not why I do the films in the first place.

Do you think time will show how important The L Word was culturally for queers and for television?
I think it already seems important. I feel that it really changed things for lesbians as a group and also lesbians’ perception and visibility in the mainstream. Also I think it changed things within the business – you don’t need to be niche-y about sexuality. You can just have a show about these people that’s like a soap and they’re all doing these things and falling out and having babies and whatever. And they just all happen to be same sex. I think that really was an eye opener for the industry because of how popular that show was. For me, it’s really interesting because whenever someone says, ‘Oh, I saw you on The L Word,’ I always say, ‘Oh, so you saw me getting fucked up the ass by a lesbian with a strap-on, then?’ And they always go, ‘Yes, yes I did.’ Because obviously, that was the culmination of my storyline, I got fucked up the ass by a beautiful lesbian with a strap-on and it was really hot. You can’t deny that was the defining factor of my story arc. So I just cut to the chase whenever someone mentions it, then nobody is shocked or embarrassed because it’s obviously what they’re thinking all along. It’s actually kind of a first, I think I’m the first man to be fucked up the ass by a lesbian with a strap-on on American television.

Would you ever want to bring Eavesdropping with Alan Cumming back? Who would you interview?
I’ve actually been doing a few little projects here and there that are similar to Eavesdropping, which was like a talk show I had without a sofa. I would just wander around places, talk to my famous guests and basically make hot girls pig out in some form of a restaurant. I would do some activity with them and then make them eat. But I really enjoyed it.
I actually did a thing recently called Remember That Time, where I would ask a famous person about an occasion, a role or something we know about them and ask them to talk about it from their point of view. I talked to Jason Biggs about when he fucked the apple pie in American Pie, I talked to Emma Stone about when she went on The Tonight Show and lip-synced and everyone lost their mind.
Then also, my Club Cumming, which was the dressing room I had at Cabaret, where I DJ’d and had these Club Cumming parties. I’ve been talking for a bit about maybe doing a Club Cumming TV show, which would be sort of like a variety show/talk show hybrid kind of thing. So I’m quite intrigued to do things like that.
I really like talking to people. I think I’m quite good at it, I’m good at disarming people and I’m interested in people so I get them to say things that perhaps they wouldn’t necessarily think they might reveal. I just enjoy it. So it’s something I think of as something I’d do in the future. Also, in a way, I think writing is kind of like that for me as well. It’s kind of a way of gossiping. So you never know. Life is long. Who knows?

You’ve played the role of emcee in Cabaret several times. What is it about the show the keeps pulling you back in?
I feel the show is really important. It tells a story that needs to be told and people need to be reminded of. Also it’s an allegory because basically, the same thing is happening in different forms again and again and again in our history.
There are two basic ideas – It warns of the dangers of complacency when there are extreme things happening in our society and that’s something we need to be reminded of constantly. I mean, just look at the Donald Trump thing happening in America right now. It’s terrifying. And obviously, in other parts of the world, extremism is rife and that’s one of the messages that I think is really vital.
The other one is to celebrate difference and to make sure that you expose yourself to things outside your world and not treat them as weird but to enjoy them as fun and sexy. They shouldn’t be taboo, they should be understood and accepted.
So it’s a dual thing. The importance of acceptance and openness and at the same time as well as the dangers of complacency. That’s why I’m drawn to the actual topic.
I just think it’s a really good show as well, it’s not one of those kind of tacky big Broadway musicals. The only two musicals I’ve done on stage are Cabaret and The Threepenny Opera. So I have a niche and I’m sticking to it. Also, it’s such a great part because it really has no boundaries. It isn’t really a part, it’s kind of a collection of scenes. The part itself is a cabaret. I just really like the way you can reinvent it and you don’t really interact with other actors, you interact with the audience. The audience is your co-star. And that’s what keeps it fresh and exciting, you have a different co-star every night. I think that’s why I’ve done it so many times. But I’m finished now. I turned fifty when I was doing it this recent time and if I wait another 16 years like I did before, I would be 66 and that’s not going to happen. Next time I do it, I’m going to play Fraulein Schneider.

I cried a lot through Any Day Now. I’m guessing that was one of the more emotionally difficult films you’ve had to make. Which has been the hardest?
Emotionally difficult films aren’t necessarily hard. They’re grueling, but in a way, they’re quite uplifting because it’s very cathartic. You’re really dredging things up, letting go and going out of your comfort zone. So actually, it is a very uplifting experience. But Any Day Now was tough.
There was a film I did in Hungary years and years ago called For My Baby and that was pretty intense. I played the son of a Holocaust survivor, whose dead sister, who had been killed in one of the camps by experiments on children, came back to haunt him. So that was pretty intense.
But I feel very sanguine about my work in that way now. I think I’ve learned over the years how important it is to leave it at work. But as I say, sometimes when you’re doing something that’s really fun and the audience is having a great time it can actually be really miserable. And other times, you can be doing the deepest, darkest things, it can actually be a blast afterwards.
I think, truly, the most difficult things for me in this way were things I did in the theater. Hamlet, I nearly lost my mind. And Macbeth, that kind of crazy solo version that I did, playing all the characters, and those characters being played by a man that was in the middle of a crisis himself, physically and emotionally and spiritually, I really thought it was going to crush me and I’m amazed I survived that.

Do you think being bisexual is harder for the gay community to deal with than the straight community? Have you experienced people thinking, ‘Yeah but we all know he’s gay really.’
I think human beings in general are predisposed to think something is weird and wrong unless they understand it, are used to it and are exposed to it. So I don’t think it’s a gay/straight thing. Human beings like things to be black and white, they like to know where they stand. And I think especially in the gay community, we like things to be black and white. You’re a top, you’re a bottom, you like this, you do that. All those things I find really infuriating. They make me feel that people are closing themselves off to possibility and experience. It’s kind of self-ghettoizing to think in that way. I believe that sexuality is fluid and it’s grey, it’s not black and white.
So I just define myself in a different way than most people do. But that’s the way I think and that’s the way I feel, even if I don’t act on that. I live with a man, but I still define myself as bisexual and I’m not going to change that. I think people need to catch up, stop being so stupid and closed off.
I think it’s getting better, actually. I think the idea of someone who defines their desires in this way is something that people are getting more used to and it’s not really as much of a big deal anymore. Yet, obviously, we’re still talking about it right now so perhaps it is. I think we should all just shut up. I think we should all shut up about famous people coming out of the closet, because the more we talk about it the more difficult we make it and  the more we  are giving prominence to a situation that really is only something that people in the media care about.

What’s next for you post-The Good Wife?
Well, I’m answering these questions in a hotel room in Los Angeles where I’m shooting a movie called Battle of the Sexes, which is about Billie Jean King playing a tennis match in the ‘70s against Bobby Riggs. It’s kind of this story about the women’s movement and Billie Jean’s burgeoning lesbianism. Emma Stone plays Billie Jean, Steve Carrell plays Bobby Riggs, and I play Teddy Tinling, who is the women’s tennis tour dressmaker. So I go around in these fabulous costumes with a lot of cravats, sewing on sequins and imparting great advice to Billie Jean. It’s really fun, it’s directed by the people who made Little Miss Sunshine.
So I’m doing that, and then I’m going to do a movie in New York called After Louie, which is a really interesting film about a man who was involved in the Act Up group in the ‘80s, the AIDS group, and how he’s a little stuck in that world. Then he meets this much younger man and has an affair with him. It’s really about the schism between generations of gay men, and I think it’s an idea that I’ve realized is something that’s very prevalent. A lot of older gay men are like, ‘Those kids don’t know, we fought for them, they weren’t there,’ and I think that they kind of push younger people away. Also there’s a generation missing of gay men, of course, because so many died. But I think it’s a really interesting dilemma and an interesting dialogue. I’d never seen it written down or voiced, and now that I am doing this film, I’m seeing examples of it everywhere. I think it’s a really great thing to just highlight how we’ve all got to meet each other.
And then I also have a lot of concerts! My Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs concerts that I’ve been doing for a while. I just did Carnegie Hall, and I’m doing a lot of concerts around America and then I’m taking it to the Edinburgh Festival in August. And my album just came out, Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs Live at the Café Carlyle, and I have a book coming out in August called You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams, which is a book of photographs and stories that I’ve written. I’m also been working on another book, so, you know, stuff like that.

Lastly Loverboy is named after the iconic Mariah Carey song. What is your favourite Mariah song?
‘One Sweet Day’, the duet she did with Boyz II Men. I just love it. It’s really beautiful. It’s a builder, it just goes up and keeps transposing. I love a builder of a song and her voice is crazy. Boyz II Men are all kind of smooth and gorgeous. And it’s a beautiful song about people you’ve lost. I just think it’s tremendous and it brings a tear to a glass eye.

Find out more about Alan at AlanCumming.com or follow him on Twitter & Instagram.

All photography by Steven Trumon. Find out more about Steven at steventrumongray.com
Steven is currently running a GoFundMe campaign to print his Wet series. Find out more here.