Alan Cumming Explains Why His 2003 X-Men Sequel Is His ‘Gayest Film’ Ever

Alan Cumming has a lot of thoughts about his role as Nightcrawler in the 2003 Marvel movie X2: X-Men United.

“Oh, I think the X-Men film I’m in is the gayest film that I’ve ever done — and that’s me saying that,” Cumming, 59, told Entertainment Weekly during a retrospective of his career, published on Sunday, June 16. “It’s got a queer director, lots of queer actors in it.”

The movie was the second installment in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise. X2 was directed by the controversial Bryan Singer (who was later accused of professional and sexual misconduct, and has since denied the allegations) and costarred Ian McKellen, who was openly gay, as well as Anna Paquin, who came out as bisexual in 2010.

“I love the fact that something so mainstream and so in the comic book world is so queer,” Cumming continued. “I think, in a way, those sorts of films really help people understand queerness, because you can address it in an artistic way, and everyone is less scared of the concept. It’s an allegory about queerness, about people having these great gifts and really great, powerful things that they have to hide to exist. Queer people understand what that’s all about.”

Cumming brought the character Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler — a mutant resembling a blue demon who can teleport from place to place — to life after Singer wanted him to play the role. The Traitors star further discussed the “really interesting” role in a blog post on his website, and how certain processes became quite the experience.

“The real drag was having to spend over four hours a day having two men poke my face,” he wrote. “Then there were the harnesses for the tail and for flying, the feet, the hands — which made going to the loo a group effort, the teeth, the lenses, oh God don’t get me started.”

While he couldn’t tease anything about The Traitors season 3 just yet (the cast was announced earlier this month), Cumming did tell EW on Sunday that the show has been a “great” experience overall.

“I didn’t quite understand why they wanted me to do it,” he admitted. “But I met with them, and I realized that it was because they kind of wanted me to be theatrical and camp, to play this larger-than-life character, and kind of create the mood of the whole show. Once I understood that, I was really on board.”

Cumming went on to say that “having the freedom to push the boundaries” and “up the ante” has been the best part of The Traitors gig.

“It’s a really great thing to remember to say yes to life, and say yes to things that you don’t really understand or seem a little weird,” he said. “I think as you get older, you’re encouraged not to do that — so, for me, it’s been really important to flout that convention. And here I am doing this show that I really enjoy and have such a laugh doing.”