Posted on Mar 27, 2025Subscribe to Screen Time NewsletterCaret DownAlan Cumming Just Gave A Tell-All Interview About "The Traitors," His Sexuality, And Wanting To Leave The Entertainment Industry"If you you love this show, maybe you shouldn't vote for a party that is trying to demean and destroy those people's lives."by Natasha JokicBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink Warning: Spoilers for The Traitors Season 3 ahead. Alan Cumming spoke to BuzzFeed about The Traitors, Cabaret, and his soothing new collaboration with Virgin Atlantic. BuzzFeed / Perry Graham / Peacock / Getty Images We're meeting due to the latter, as the actor is partnering with Virgin Atlantic to celebrate the airline's new LAX Clubhouse. He's narrated a bedtime story, fittingly titled, "ReLAX and Unwind with Alan Cumming." I ask him how he relaxes, and on top of the usual - no phone before bed, reading, a cocktail on a plane - he replies, "It's usually about getting away from people." PERRY GRAHAM / Virgin Atlantic / Via youtube.com These are the two sides of Alan Cumming. There's the famous one we know, who talks about having "accidentally packed" a "fabulous pair of sneakers" that he was supposed to return after a recent photoshoot. Then there's the Alan who, when he's not being "famous Alan Cumming, or Traitors Alan Cumming, or red carpet Alan Cumming" prefers to wear clothes that can be described as "pajamas in disguise." Variety / Variety via Getty Images "I don't ever want to be recognized, ever. It's not something that I seek. It's just a part of my life," he tells me. "I try to be kind and have my own boundaries. Like, maybe I don't want to have a photo right now on this plane or whilst I'm picking up my dog's poop." Craig Barritt / Getty Images for The New Yorker He recalls one night in particular: "On my 40th birthday, which was 20 years ago, I had a big, weepy crying fit the night before. I'd been drinking. My husband said, 'Is it because you're turning 40?' And I said, 'No, it's because I don't want to be famous anymore.' I was at Sundance, which is really intense, you're constantly being poked in the head. And I just thought, 'I don't want this to be my life anymore. It's just too much.'" George Pimentel / WireImage So what changed? "I then thought, even if I stop making films and stop everything, it's still going to happen for years. So that was when I realized I've just got to deal with it," he continues. "With my success, I've got nice homes that I can go to, and they're sanctuaries - people don't know where I am, it's away from everybody. That's definitely something I've created to get away from being recognized. But it's part of life, you know? Luckily, if people didn't recognize me, I probably wouldn't get to have those nice homes. So that's the bargain that you have to live with." J. Vespa / WireImage / Getty Images There's a decent chunk of people likely recognizing him now due to his magnificent hosting of The Traitors. Is there a moment that went on behind the scenes that viewers probably wouldn't know about? Aside from the "gargantuan amount of people running around and trying to avoid being on screen," he begins, "Last year in the episode, when we were on the boat, there was a huge storm. We weren't allowed to get off the boat because of health and safety." Peacock "Me, the contestants, and some of the crew ended up going on this two-hour journey in a fucking mental storm," he continues. "We're tilting so far over that the sea was actually on the window. Such projectile vomiting from Sandra. The only person, of course, who was totally fine with it was Kate from Below Deck. She was like, 'Is there any drink? Is there any liquor here?' Things careening off the shelves, people upstairs vomiting, and the cameras falling into the sea. And then Kate and I just shooting the breeze and having whiskey." Peacock If there's a fitting image of Alan, it certainly seems to be of the man sipping cocktails as the waves crash around him. I ask him about the storm inside the traitors' turret this season. "At a certain point you don't have any control over it because we've named the traitors," he responds. "There's a certain amount of advice that they get, and in their interviews they are talking to people - it's a conversation." Peacock "It's so interesting to me that this series had these so many traitors being completely bonkers, chaotic, and dystopian in betraying each other - and then, for it to end in such a lovely way, with four people all trusting each other. In a funny sort of way, it mirrored what's going on in America right now," he adds. "It was the ending we all needed." Peacock As his star power on The Traitors brings him to new audiences, I ask if he is ever frustrated to still see his sexuality mislabeled. "I let that one go," he responds. "I mean I try to, when I have a chance to, define myself as bisexual. But if people say gay - I like queer, actually, because it's more all-encompassing, and it doesn't necessarily