Interview
Alan Cumming
Scottish actor Alan Cumming appears in the Prime mini-series Tin Man. He spoke to the Listener from New York before the US presidential elections.
You’ve had such a widely varied career that I don’t know where to start – is it a matter of luck or design that you’ve been able to do so many different things?
A combination of both. I’ve always had a lot of things on the go and once you’re known for doing different kinds of things, then you tend to be asked to do it more. It’s not design in that I have a grand plan, it’s just that I have a lot of different interests and I get quite bored easily.
How do you pace yourself, are you afraid of spreading yourself too thin?
Sometimes, but the very nature of the whole thing is that you have to have several pots boiling at once. Things don’t just end and start when you want them too. I have several things on the go that I’m involved in, so you have to spread yourself thin a wee bit. But I think it’s about focus, you have to be incredibly focused when you do work on a project and give it your full attention.
You’ve had success in the UK and the US – are you known as the sci-fi character in the US and the board-treading thesp in the UK?
No, I wouldn’t say so at all. In New York, a lot of people know me from the stuff I do on Broadway, and in London, films as well. Because I’ve done so many things and I’ve been around for so long, I’m so old, and I’ve done high-profile things in various different fields, it depends on which age group you talk to. There’s a whole swath of kids that are now teenagers who know me from the Spy Kids films. I hosted the PBS Masterpiece Mystery Theatre this summer and that’s insane, the number of people who have watched that. So it’s hard to tell.
Where do you spend most of your time?
In New York City.
Have you been following the Presidential race?
Oh yeah. I’m a big Obama supporter, I’ve been doing lots of fundraising and speeches and stuff, I did one last night in a local bar. I’ve been doing a lot of work for Obama.
How did the speech go down?
It went down well, I’ve got a lot to say. I’ve been really excited at the way so many people have asked me to come and speak at things and host things, I’ve been glad to do that and heartened that people want to hear what I’ve got to say.
It does seem surprising, given that you’re a Scottish actor.
Yeah, well, this is a land of immigrants and I have made it my home. Tomorrow, I have to do things for my naturalization. I’ll be a joint citizen of Britain and America and I did that because of being inspired by Obama and wanting to be a part of the future that he will make.
You won’t be able to vote this time?
Hopefully for his second term.
You must be very optimistic, he’s ahead in the polls.
It seems like it’s great. But you know, there’s still some scary things that potentially could happen and I don’t trust those nasty Republicans one bit. Al Gore won in 2000, but they cheated. I think they’re against the ropes and tired but you know, there’s so much big business and so much money behind those people and they want the situation to stay as it is because they know if Obama gets in there’s going to be a routing of the things that keep them fat. So there’s a lot at stake. It’s been an incredibly passionate time and there’s going to be just a huge outpouring of emotion on Tuesday night.
There seem to be some crazy things going on … is it really that mad?
Yes. It depends where you go, though. In New York, you don’t get crazy people like that. You get people who are McCain voters, but they’re definitely in the minority. But if you look at the map of America, any part of it that is on the outside that has to deal with other cultures and has more exchange with other religions and other people of difference, any part of it that has that is more of a Democrat state and the big lump in the middle of people who don’t get to experience very much outside their own world or culture, don’t have passports – only about 12% of Americans own a passport, Sarah Palin didn’t own one until last year – they’re more likely to be Republican, so that xenophobia, the Republicans can fuel the fires of that fear. So that’s when you get crazy people. Like that woman saying she wasn’t voting for Obama … she nearly used the n-word, she said, “A n … Arab”. And then McCain took back the microphone and said, “No, he’s a good family man.” Can we just address the fact that she said she doesn’t trust him because he’s an Arab? What if he was an Arab? Why are you not saying, “That’s racist, we don’t condone that here.”? Imagine if someone said, “I don’t trust that person because they’re white.”?
It seems that the Republicans have an irrational fear of Obama.
Page 1 
