Alan Cumming is reflecting on his past film roles and has a particular thing to say about 2003’s X2: X-Men United.
The Traitors host played the role of Nightcrawler in the sequel to the 2000 Bryan Singer film X-Men. In a new interview, Cumming talked about why this superhero film was so important.
“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 told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s got a queer director, lots of queer actors in it. I love the fact that something so mainstream and so in the comic book world is so queer.”
He 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.”
In a post on his official website, Cumming said he “had never heard of the X-Men” before talking to the director about the role.
“The character is really interesting, the message of the film (tolerance of others who are different from us) was very timely and unusual for a Hollywood blockbuster, but the real drag was having to spend over four hours a day having two men poke my face,” Cummin says. “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.”
Nightcrawler is a superhero associated with X-Men who has the power of teleportation.
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