Alan Cumming says he loves “smashing the binary” with his gloriously theatrical Traitors wardrobe — while his new drama Tip Toe tackles a much darker side of queer life.
Alan Cumming has never exactly been known for blending into the background.
Whether he’s acting, writing, campaigning for LGBTQ+ equality or stalking the corridors of a Scottish castle in capes, eyeliner and tartan, the 61-year-old star has long made a virtue of refusing conventional ideas about how men are supposed to look or behave.
And he is delighted that The Traitors gives him an international platform to lean even further into it.
“Look at me stomping around like a big femme daddy!” Cumming told Out.
“I’m a 61-year-old man with eyeshadow and a dress. I’m embracing smashing the binary with my outfits! Hopefully that will help in some little way.”
‘Smashing the binary’
Cumming hosts the US version of The Traitors, a role that has become almost as famous for his wardrobe as the deception taking place around the round table.
His highly stylised looks have incorporated kilts, dramatic cloaks, jewellery, dresses and plenty of eye make-up — turning his version of the host into an intentionally exaggerated, queer theatrical creation.
Cumming says he particularly enjoys the broad audience the programme reaches.
“It’s got a fascinating demographic,” he said. “We’ve got a hefty amount of our acronym represented.”
For him, the visibility matters precisely because his presentation is not toned down to appeal to a mainstream reality-TV audience.
Instead, some of the things that might once have been considered too queer for prime-time television have become part of the show’s appeal.
A darker queer story in Tip Toe
Cumming’s latest acting project could hardly be more different.
In the new psychological drama Tip Toe, he plays a gay man in Manchester whose life becomes entangled with violence and homophobia.
STARZ describes the series as following neighbours Leo and Clive after the seemingly simple act of sharing a spare key sends their lives into “a minefield of lies and violence”. The series began streaming on 2 October.
For Cumming, the story connects with what he sees as a broader climate of hostility towards marginalised communities.
“This show is about vilifying low-hanging fruit in society, which is often queer people, trans people, immigrants, refugees… people like that,” he told Out.
He also accused the US Government of contributing to that climate and argued that hostile rhetoric can have consequences beyond politics.
Those are Cumming’s political views, but they also explain why he considers Tip Toe an important project at this point in his career.
‘People are too scared in America’
Cumming was equally outspoken about where queer stories are — and are not — being made.
“People are too scared in America to make a show like this,” he said.
He argued that creatives can fear political backlash or boycotts when projects directly address government or discrimination, pointing to queer productions made outside the United States as examples of stories he believes American studios have become more cautious about.
“Americans are not getting these stories,” Cumming said. “That’s what’s scary to me.”
His comments are an assessment of the US entertainment and political climate rather than an established industry-wide fact, but they reflect a concern increasingly voiced by queer artists about which LGBTQ+ stories receive mainstream backing.
From camp spectacle to queer visibility
There is a striking contrast between Cumming’s two current projects.
On The Traitors, his queerness appears through humour, costume and flamboyant performance — the self-described “big femme daddy” turning gender play into part of one of reality television’s biggest franchises.
In Tip Toe, queer identity is explored through vulnerability, hostility and violence.
For Cumming, however, both appear to fit within the same broader philosophy: refusing to make queer people less visible simply because visibility can provoke discomfort.
And with Cumming already confirmed to return as host for The Traitors season six, which Peacock says will premiere in early 2027, there should be considerably more binary-smashing fashion still to come.
