From Traitors to trans rights, Alan Cumming is dressing for a revolution

Alan Cumming wanted to channel Tom of Finland — the gay Finnish artist who began creating depictions of exaggerated masculinity amid the rise of Nazism in Europe — in his Out cover shoot. So a mustachioed model in full leather regalia posed on his hands and knees as Cumming placed his own foot on his back. It was a real-life display of the kinky power dynamics that crackle within the erotic illustrations.

“I like provocation, I like being bigger than life in order to challenge people and make them think,” Cumming shares. The bisexual entertainer is a fan of Tom’s work, which is still a fixture in gay bars and an ongoing influence in art and culture. But Cumming also sees giving life to Tom today as an act of resistance. During this December interview, Cumming cites reports that Donald Trump is planning an executive order reinstating a ban on transgender people from serving in the U.S. military — as well as broader threats against trans youth in schools. Indeed, Trump made the erasure of trans people a centerpiece of executive action after taking office again on Monday.

“Anything you can do to remind people…that it’s OK to be different, and it’s OK to be provocative, and it’s OK to have a different outlook on life is the best thing to do,” he notes. “And also, it’s fun!”

Editor's note: This Out shoot and interview took place prior to the Tom of Finland Foundation cofounder's resignation over hate symbols. The Tom of Finland Foundation disavowed any knowledge of its cofounder's actions.

Alan Cumming in KIDSUPER Suit; CALVIN KLEIN UNDERWEAR Tank; GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI Shoes; Model Kirill in Vintage Hat; SCHOTT Jacket, Pants, and BootsArnaldo Anaya-Lucca

The embrace of the playful alongside the political is a running thread for Cumming, a prolific 59-year-old actor of stage and screen whose oeuvre includes his Tony-winning turn as the Emcee in Cabaret, the Emmy-nominated role of Eli Gold on The Good Wife, and film credits in millennial favorites like Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, GoldenEye, Spice World, Burlesque, Josie and the Pussycats, X2, and Spy Kids.

In his latest chapter, the Scottish-born entertainer has emerged as a style and cultural icon hosting The Traitors, the hit Peacock reality competition in which he lords over a castle of backstabbing reality stars vying for a cash prize. His over-the-top ensembles — a mad mélange of Scottish culture, “aristocratic porn,” kink, and drag — are a large part of the show’s draw. Proud disclaimer: The stylist for Traitors and this shoot, Sam Spector, is a former Out fashion editor.

“I’ve unleashed the beast in [Spector], and I really love that,” says Cumming, who previously preferred to dress himself for most occasions but has learned to embrace the ease and creative potential of having a style collaborator. “The outfits are so nuts and have become such a part of the fabric of the show.”

“People are so excited and interested in what I wear,” he marvels. “So now, every time we’re like, Oh, my God, what are we going to do now? What are we going to do next?”

Alan Cumming in DIOR Suit and Tank; CAMPERLAB Sneakers; JOHN HARDY Necklace; Alan’s Own Bracelets Arnaldo Anaya-Lucca

The pair has intentionally leaned into the genderfluid aspect of the ensembles, which are meant to entertain but also make a political statement. This presentation is “going against the political flow in terms of the binary,” he notes. Indeed, an early episode of season 3 sees Cumming wrapped in a corset with a caged petticoat.

“I feel if you see me, if you’re having fun…and you’re looking forward to what I’m going to wear next, and I’m wearing some sort of non-masculine ensemble…then maybe when you see someone walking down the street in clothes that you don’t normally associate them with wearing or society hasn’t normally associated them with wearing, then maybe you’ll be a bit more understanding.”

There’s “not a hint of shame” in how Cumming wears these clothes, he notes. “And actually people loving it and rejoicing in that sort of flamboyance — I think that’s a really positive thing for us right now.”

Alan Cumming in TANNER FLETCHER Shirt and Sweater Vest; ZANKOV Trousers; CAMPERLAB BootsArnaldo Anaya-Lucca

Cumming’s styling is one pillar of the queer appeal of Traitors, which has attracted fans beyond traditional reality fandoms. The host calls attention to the show’s high production value — torch-lit courtyards, richly decorated castle interiors, and horse-drawn forest funeral processions are among the visual delights — as well as the “slightly exotic” milieu. “It’s not in a hotel in Pennsylvania, it’s in a castle in Scotland, so it’s already got a mystique,” he notes.

Also, “people love watching people lie,” Cumming surmises. For the uninitiated, lying is a central conceit of The Traitors — at least three people are clandestinely tapped by Cumming to be “Traitors” who (nearly) each night will kill one of their fellow contestants, known as the “Faithfuls.” But the Traitors must hide their identities. Through a popular vote, the rest of the cast members have an opportunity each roundtable to banish a person they believe to be a Traitor. If the Faithfuls succeed in eliminating the Traitors, they will share a $250,000 reward. If even one Traitor remains by the season’s conclusion, however, that Traitor will snatch the prize.

While deceit plays a role in many competitive reality shows — Traitors draws its casting pool from stars of Survivor, Big Brother, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and the Real Housewives multiverse, to name a few — here, it’s a necessity for survival. Contestants “may enjoy the lying, but a lot of them don’t enjoy it, and they’re horrified by it,” Cumming notes. “…I think that’s a very human connection.”

Alan Cumming in DIOR Suit and Tank; CAMPERLAB Sneakers; JOHN HARDY Necklace; Alan’s Own Bracelets; Model Kirill in Vintage Hat; SCHOTT Jacket, Pants, and BootsArnaldo Anaya-Lucca

Don’t underestimate the show’s camp value — “not just American camp [like] when people think it’s like a feather boa, but [the] subterfuge of camp,” he says. Drawing from his theatrical background, Cumming is prone to Shakespearean quotation and poetic devices to amplify the stakes of “treachery” and “murder.” However, “of course they’re not really gonna be murdered… I love the way that we just fling these words around. It’s a safe kind of brutality.” Cumming’s appeal as a character has created the “Alan Cumming effect,” in which other reality productions are now seeking to cast hosts in his dramatic mold, shares Cumming, which he finds “hilarious.”

Many contestants take sartorial cues from Cumming. Phaedra Parks, a Housewives alumnus and a Traitor last season, channeled mob wife chic as she sliced through the Faithfuls. Fellow Traitor Parvati Shallow, a Survivor siren, crowned herself with elaborate headbands as she slipped poison to the unsuspecting. This season, drag is on literal display with Bob the Drag Queen. “It’s Lord of the Flies with Botox,” jokes Cumming, a reference to the William Golding novel about boys stranded on an island who devolve into brutality.

In addition to Bob, season 3 of The Traitors is the most LGBTQ-inclusive yet. The cast includes Bob Harper (The Biggest Loser), Dorinda Medley (The Real Housewives of New York), Chrishell Stause (Selling Sunset), Lord Ivar Mountbatten, Gabby Windley (The Bachelorette), and Carolyn Wiger (Survivor). “I’ve really worked hard to try and make sure there’s more queer representation,” says Cumming, who is also a producer.

Alan Cumming in BURBERRY Suit and Shoes; TANNER FLETCHER Top; JOHN HARDY Necklace: Alan’s own Glasses Arnaldo Anaya-Lucca

From Survivor to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy to RuPaul’s Drag Race, reality TV has long played a vital role in advancing LGBTQ+ representation, particularly when scripted Hollywood productions lag. Notably, Traitors bested Drag Race in the Outstanding Reality Competition Program category at the 2024 Emmys, where Cumming also broke RuPaul’s eight-year reign as Outstanding Host for a Reality Competition Program.

Cumming calls this moment of victory “bittersweet, and I didn’t quite understand the full portent of it until it was nearly happening.” He credits Drag Race’s long awards-season dominance to “the huge cultural good [Drag Race] has done for the way drag has been changed in people’s perceptions.” And he observes “a backlash against drag in our culture” that may have been part of the calculus for the Emmys upset.

Cumming, who wore a transgender rights pin to the televised Emmys ceremony, spoke with some of the Drag Race contestants there about the import of the upset. “I feel terrible,” he told them. “And they said, ‘Oh, you know, if anyone’s going to win it apart from Ru, it should be you and your show because it’s carrying on the mantle.’” Cumming says he also approached RuPaul at the ceremony. “I am so sorry,” he told the drag icon. Ru’s response? “Condragulations.”

Alan Cumming in TANNER FLETCHER Shirt and Sweater Vest; ZANKOV Trousers; CAMPERLAB Boots; Model Kirill in Vintage Hat; SCHOTT Jacket, Pants, and BootsArnaldo Anaya-Lucca

While Traitors displays some of the uglier sides of human nature — the early elimination of transgender contestant Peppermint on season 2 sent shock waves through the castle — it can also serve as a blueprint for the importance of coalition-building for survival during a political movement that seeks to divide LGBTQ+ people. “Boston Rob and Bob the Drag Queen being a part of a cabal together. I mean, who ever would think that would happen?” says Cumming of the backward-hat-wearing Survivor bro and the Drag Race champion.

While treachery is routine, Traitors shows “a really heightened version of what society could be,” Cumming observes. “…We have a range of people who are all willing to have a goal and willing to step outside their comfort zones, and I think that’s what we’re not encouraged to do in America by the powers that be right now.”

Alan Cumming in KIDSUPER Suit; CALVIN KLEIN UNDERWEAR Tank; GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI ShoesArnaldo Anaya-Lucca

Paraphrasing an interview he gave with talk show host Conan O’Brien before the advent of marriage equality in the United States, Cumming once summed up his role in culture as the “acceptable face of deviants in America, because I’m kind of nice and cute and funny and a little mischievous.” Today, he sees the demonization of trans people as the latest ploy in a conservative playbook seeking to politicize LGBTQ+ people for political gain — and he’s determined to use his mainstream Traitors platform to push back against the lies.

“It’s not about toilets. It’s never about the things they say it’s about,” he says. “It’s about using a group in society that is vulnerable and easily hated to be the scapegoat in order to take attention away from the other terrible things that are happening.”

“It’s a really terrifying time,” says Cumming, who notes how some trans friends are stockpiling hormones in anticipation of worst-case scenarios. “So anything I can do to just show trans power and trans beauty and trans happiness, I do.” Trans people are “being erased in front of us,” he warns. “We know where [this playbook] goes. They’ll go straight along that [LGBTQ+] acronym.”

Alan Cumming in Vintage Sailor Hat, Tie, Shirt, Pants; KIDSUPER Suit; CALVIN KLEIN UNDERWEAR Tank; CAMPERLAB Boots; Model Kirill in Vintage Hat; SCHOTT Jacket, Pants, and BootsArnaldo Anaya-Lucca

At present, Cumming observes a leadership vacuum needed to galvanize the LGBTQ+ movement toward collective action in the face of political oppression and corporate abandonment. He wants to see the community truly flex the power of the pink dollar: leaving the Elon Musk-owned social media platform X, for example, or boycotting Target after the chain removed Pride merchandise from some of its locations. “We have economic power, and we have intellectual power, and we have passion and…we’re going to need to use it.”

As Cumming approaches a milestone 60th birthday, he’s also discovering a newfound liberation of his powers. “I’ve been doing this job for 40 years,” he says. “I’ve got experience, and I’ve got wisdom, and I don’t feel like I’m just a dopey boy that is bouncing around anymore…. If I don’t want to do something, I just don’t.”

“That’s one of the good things about being older is that you give less of a fuck, you truly do. And then at the same time, you give more of a fuck.” He adds, “I’m embracing my daddy-ness.”

Alan Cumming in in BURBERRY Suit, Shoes and Sunglasses; TANNER FLETCHER Top; JOHN HARDY Necklace; Model Kirill in Vintage Hat; SCHOTT Jacket, Pants, and BootsArnaldo Anaya-Lucca

Cumming still feels the same joie de vivre as he did as a young man. But he also grew up in challenging times for a bisexual boy from Scotland. He’s written about his abusive father before in his 2014 memoir Not My Father’s Son. And during this interview, he acknowledges the “big shadow” of the AIDS crisis during his coming of age in drama school, which made him “terrified of sex.” What would he tell his younger self if he could? “It’s gonna be OK. Ultimately, you’re gonna find yourself, and just don’t rush things because there’s lots to unpeel, and there’s lots to discover. Eventually, you’ll come into your own.”

There’s a lot his younger self would be proud of. Cumming has a number of acting projects in the pipeline this year, including Drive Back Home, a film about a pair of brothers (one of them, played by Cumming, is gay) who embark on a road trip. In addition to his entertainment career, Cumming operates a gay bar in New York, Club Cumming, which has become a hub of the city’s queer creative nightlife. A dual citizen of the U.S. and Scotland, Cumming is now “going back to my roots” as artistic director of the latter country’s Pitlochry Festival Theatre. He’s also a longtime activist who has used his spotlight to champion a range of causes, from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS to PETA — he famously posed nude once for animal rights, and his quest to free a kidnapped chimpanzee was a driving force of last year’s hit HBO docuseries Chimp Crazy. “Right now I feel very alive, and in a sort of crazy way,” he says. “So many things from my past are coming back into my life.”

Alan Cumming in ZANKOV Shirt and Shorts; CALVIN KLEIN UNDERWEAR Tank; CAMPERLAB Boots; Model Kirill in Vintage Hat; SCHOTT Jacket, Pants, and BootsArnaldo Anaya-Lucca

Cumming also takes pride in his marriage to illustrator Grant Shaffer. The pair first became civil partners in London in 2007 before marrying in New York in 2012. While Cumming has long been a proponent of marriage equality in terms of the legal protections it affords (particularly now, as its political future in the U.S. seems uncertain), he also praises the personal joy that comes from it. “We have this really core connection and understanding and trust in each other. We just love being together,” he shares of Shaffer. “…He’s the first person in my life who’s not wanted to change me.”

At this moment, within the swirl of a chaotic world, the Traitors host is excited to offer others some joy — and perhaps a little hope. “For people who love drama, there’s a lot coming,” he says. “But for people who love seeing that there’s good in the world — reflected in reality competition TV — then they’ll be happy too.”

This cover story is part of the Out January/February issue, which hits newsstands February 4. Support queer media and subscribe — or download the issue through Apple News, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader starting January 23.

talent: Alan Cumming @alancummingreally
model: Kirill Kabachenko @kyrylo_k with Q Model Management @qmodels
photographer: Arnaldo Anaya-Lucca @arnaldoanaya with de facto @defactoinc
digital tech: Norman Nelson @normannelsonphoto
first assistant: Hannah Maynard @hannahemaynard
stylist: Sam Spector @samspector
first stylist assistant: Katie Vaughan @kvaughan1
second stylist assistant: Kate Millar @katemillarr
grooming: Michael Moreno @michaelmorenohair with The Only Agency @theonly.agency
videographer: Stuart Sox @sox_andthecity

Alan Cumming in TANNER FLETCHER Shirt and Sweater Vest; ZANKOV Trousers; CAMPERLAB BootsArnaldo Anaya-Lucca