Alan Cumming has lived in the US for over 25 years, but now more than ever he’s grateful to have a Scottish bolthole.
Fully fledged New Yorker Alan, 60, describes ‘terrifying’ ICE raids that took place just miles away from his current position as he chats with Metro over the phone.
‘I am very lucky that I have another life and another existence in Scotland, and it’s just sort of funny, I’m walking along the street right now in New York, and you wouldn’t know anything was different,’ explains Alan, who became a US citizen in 2008.
‘But this is New York, and yet ICE have been less than a mile away from me right now in Chinatown, taking people off the streets. It’s terrifying.
‘People are afraid to speak out, and people are afraid of losing their jobs and people are afraid of being deported. It’s f**king ridiculous. It’s awful.’
Alan often travels between Scotland and the US, as he presents the US version of the Traitors, but he’s also putting on an LGBTQ+ theatre festival in the Perthshire town of Pitlochry in January.
What are the ICE raids in the US?
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the federal government agency supervised by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who are implementing Trump’s aggressive immigration strategy in New York and beyond, sparking nationwide protests and outcry.
As part of Trump’s mass deportation plan, it is thought over 200,000 people have been arrested and deported since January, sparking protests throughout the US.
In the roll out, which has been criticised as ‘ruthless’ and ‘inhumane’, several American citizens have also been mistakenly detained and deported.
The Out in the Hills event, which Alan promises will be a ‘weekend of queer joy’, is attracting the likes of Sir Ian McKellen and Graham Norton to the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, of which he is artistic director, on January 16 to 18 for productions, discussions and readings.
It wasn’t hard to get these names on board.
‘It was easy. They are friends of mine. People have been so supportive of what I’m trying to do, trying to put Pitlochry on the map. Also, a queer Festival at a time when queer and trans people are being so attacked, I can think they saw that it was a really good time to celebrate people and make a stance,’ Alan says.
While Alan won’t answer the question about what’s the most exciting part of the event, ‘I’m not going to do that. I can’t do that, Kitty. I love all of them,’ he is excited about his role in a cast of six for a brand new stage play, Me and the Girls, which is a Neil Bartlett adaptation of Noel Coward’s 1964 short story.
On what inspired him to put on the festival, Alan says: ‘As a queer man, I just feel like it was a good time for several reasons. There’s nothing in the calendar going on at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
‘In the middle of winter when we have nothing on, [I thought] what could we do to pep up the possibilities for people in Scotland to come and see, and I just think it’s a great time to remind people of the amazing contributions LGBTQ people have made to our culture and our society.’
With the next series of the US Traitors – presented by Alan – landing on Peacock on January 8, his brains were ripe to be picked about the UK’s first Celebrity Traitors, which was in full dramatic swing at the time of our call.
‘It’s a weird experience to see Claudia – she must feel the same with my one I guess – it’s like someone’s in your house,’ Alan says.
‘I think it’s great, I really love it. It’s actually amazing because of course everybody knows each other and don’t have to find out about each other’s characters.
‘So there’s a sort of elite in terms of the game and the psychology of the game, when everyone’s well known.’
Alan was filming the US version of the show two days after Celebrity Traitors UK had finished, so he knew the shock end result, that Alan Carr would win the series as a traitor.
‘I usually forget [who’s won] by the time it comes around. But I’ve got used to keeping those secrets,’ Alan says.
As for what’s next for Alan, he will keep on carrying on – but with a few rests in between.
‘I would still like to keep doing what I’m doing. I’m excited and energised by the work I’m doing, I just need to have more gaps between it,’ he explains.
‘That’s my New Year’s resolution. That, and to learn how to play the bagpipes.’
Get tickets to Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Out in the Hills festival here.
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