The New Yorker Radio Hour
Alan Cumming on “The Traitors” and His Brush with Reality Television
Tue, 4 Mar 2025
When Emily Nussbaum introduced Alan Cumming at the New Yorker Festival, she said, “Plenty of actors light up a room, but Alan Cumming is more of a disco ball—reflecting every possible angle of show business.” Cumming appears in mainstream dramas such as “The Good Wife,” and also more indie projects like his one-man version of “Macbeth”; his performances in musicals such as “Cabaret” are legendary. He also owns a nightclub; his memoir “Not My Father’s Son” was a bestseller, and so on. And Cumming plays the host on the Emmy-winning reality show “The Traitors.” He combines “a dandy Scottish laird—sort of James Bond villain, sort of eccentric, old-fashioned nut who has this big castle.” Spoiler alert: “It’s supposed to be my castle. It’s not.” Nussbaum asks about his perspective on reality TV before he started on “Traitors.” “Zero, really,” Cumming confesses. “I was a bit judgy. … The thing I don't like about a lot of those shows is that they laud and therefore encourage bad behavior and lack of kindness.” Before “The Traitors,” Cumming’s first brush with reality television was on “Who Do You Think You Are?,” a BBC genealogy program that confronted him with shocking secrets about his own family. “It made a good memoir, I suppose,” he jokes. “Just how awful that was. It was awful. But no, I don't regret it.”
Chapter 1: What did Emily Nussbaum say about Alan Cumming?
Here's Alan Cumming at the New Yorker Festival, speaking with staff writer Emily Nussbaum.
So straight out of Scotland, but eternally beloved in New York, welcome Alan Cumming. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
So for anybody who hasn't seen it, Traitors is a reality show that stars reality stars. Mostly, yeah.
There's a lot of people from the reality universe as well as some random famous people. It's sort of, you know, celebrities and they all go to a castle and it's supposed to be my castle. It's not. And I pretend it is. And we do this, you know, they play this game that's basically the parlor game mafia.
So who is this guy who owns this castle? Like, did you think at all about him as a character? Does he have a backstory? Does he...
I mean, I think of him absolutely as a character. You know, I think of him as this sort of combination of a dandy Scottish laird slash sort of James Bond villain slash sort of eccentric old-fashioned nut and who has this big castle and... Or like that film Clue or something, you know. It's got all those combinations of these very...
theatrical camp in the true sense of camp, the sort of the wit and the sort of sardonic kind of camp. And he's sort of imposing and scary, but not mean. And I sort of try not to engage with the contestants because of that, like in filming. I mean, it's getting harder because they see me outside and I say things like this afterwards.
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Chapter 2: How did Alan Cumming describe his character in The Traitors?
But when we're at the time, I think I want them to be a little scared of me because I have to sort of shout at them quite a lot to tell them to be quiet and things. It gets out of control sometimes. Like in this new season, I actually thought I was going to have to break up a fight. And I don't do that very often. No, but I mean, I thought that in one of the round tables, it got so brutal.
that, you know, people get so passionate about it and it was scary. And I have to kind of, you know, be really firm with them and I have to, they have, so I think being chatty and sort of talking between takes doesn't, you know, it's sort of, it's like being and staying in character in a way. Well, good morning, my ever decreasing circle of friends.
Last night, MJ, Kate, Trishel, and Parvati were hung out to dry, but it was Bergie who suffered the final devastating blow, brutally dispatched by the traitors.
Players, despite the loss of Bergie, we must let bygones be bygones. Bye. Gone.
Oh, my God. Oh, Lord.
Savage.
Soon, players, you must turn your attention to today's mission. You'll be taking a little trip to my, well, let's call it a holiday home. I have a guest who's currently staying there who'll help you settle in. And after all, who doesn't enjoy a little country escape?
Oh, God. Escape, escape.
I think it's the cabin.
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Chapter 3: What was Alan Cumming's initial perspective on reality television?
Probably at school, someone was mean to them. And now that they have power because they have a disguise and they have a sort of a platform, they're basically not breaking the cycle and they're just repeating that bad behavior. And I don't like it. And I think the great thing I like about The Traitors is that it doesn't do that. It doesn't, it makes people have to work together.
Of course, they do terrible things to each other and they're treacherous, but it's not, it's about the game aspect rather than just being, you know, a meanie and just flinging wine at each other and stuff like that. So, yeah, actually, this is a complete left field, hilarious turn in my life and career to be hosting this show. And I really like it. Don't get me wrong. I love it. It's such fun.
And also it has brought me many great things. You know, other things have happened because of the success of this. Like when you're successful in one thing, it usually has a sort of knock-on effect in the other parts of your life. And so I've been around the block long enough to recognize that your career, not that I've ever been in the doldrums, but, you know, you have peaks and less big peaks.
This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. More to come.
On Radiolab, a story about how the country's most brilliant doctors did exactly what they were supposed to do.
And wound up killing 20, 30,000 people or so before it was over with.
The question we'll ask is, how did this happen?
Yeah, that's not the right question. The question is, why would they do such a stupid thing? Yeah, that is the question, isn't it? Yeah, that's the question.
Find out on How to Cure What Ails You from Radiolab. Listen where you get podcasts or on the WNYC app.
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Chapter 4: How does The Traitors differ from other reality shows?
You actually appeared on a very different kind of reality show that you talk about in your memoir called Who Do You Think You Are? That was the name of it, right? Where it was a genealogy show. Who Do You Think You Are, yeah. That traced the life of your grandfather. And in that, you were the subject. You were on the other side of the camera.
And I'm wondering, looking back on that experience, how you feel about it, whether you feel good about it, whether you feel ambivalent or you feel regrets, and whether you learned anything from it.
I certainly learned stuff from it. I... Oh, well, I mean, when it happened, when they asked me, I remember thinking, oh, this is the best thing that's happened to me about being famous. Because there was a mystery in my family and they have to, you know, they ask you if you'd like to be a part of it. And then they go away and research you for a while.
couple of months and they come back and say yes we want to do it and then they say and we're actually going to feature this part of this area of your family and so there was this mystery in my family and i just remember thinking i'm going to be able to because i'm famous and the bbc's research and all the things are going to be able to that will make my mom have this knowledge that she's never had about what happened to her father and what a great gift that is and then
You know, a month later, I was like, this is the worst thing that's ever happened to me about being famous. Because I had to call up my mom and tell her something truly awful, which was that her father had died in Malaysia playing Russian roulette. Yeah. And I met, you know, someone who had known him, told me that in this little cafe in Malaysia. And
it was it was I mean I don't regret it because I feel the truth is better than not knowing even if the truth is hard and it made a lot of sense to a lot of things. And I just think it was, you know, but what was awful, even more awful, was at the time that this was happening, my father, because he thought that the show, because the show said, they asked me if they could interview him.
And I said, yes, of course, whatever. But I don't want him to be on the show. But just because they were going to research, ask all your aunties and uncles and all these people. And so he knew that I was, he refused to be interviewed for it, but he, and I didn't know how to get hold of him because we were estranged. He was estranged from us for decades.
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Chapter 5: What impact has hosting The Traitors had on Alan Cumming's career?
But they got him and he refused to be interviewed even just for the research. But then he knew I was doing it. So because he thought I was going to find out something, he preempted it and got reached out to my brother and told me, told him to tell me that I was not his biological son.
And that happened the night before I started filming the thing when I found out my grandfather died from playing Russian roulette. So all the way through this thing, I was having to deal with my father again for the first time in decades. And, you know, that's what my book... It made a good memoir, I suppose, but that's what my book's all about, this sort of duality and just how awful that was.
It was awful.
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I really am sideswiped. I didn't see that one coming at all. What state of mind must he have been in to be getting his kicks from being in some little bar, putting a gun to his head?
I feel really sad for him. being told on camera that your grandfather died playing Russian roulette is a lot. It's not just like, oh, you know, your great, great, great aunt was a minister to Queen Elizabeth and the blah, blah. And you're like, how fascinating. It was really, and also it was so near, you know, it was so close. He's one generation away. And so, but as I say, I don't regret it.
I have no regrets actually.
You were raised in a very abusive household in a rural Scottish estate where your father was the caretaker. And then you escaped and you trained to become an actor and you achieved success relatively quickly in your career. And I wanted to ask a little bit about what that first dose of attention was like for you.
Well, I think what's interesting about becoming famous is you don't get lessons on it at drama school. And I was also coming from a culture where celebrity is not king, like it is here. It was more shocking to me. I mean, obviously, I knew famous people. There were famous people, but it wasn't quite... It happened so fast and it happened, I was so young.
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