Alan Cumming at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, where he's just been announced as the new Artistic Director

Ask anyone in your life to name their favourite Alan Cumming performance, and you’re most likely going to get a completely different answer every single time.

Over the last four decades, the Scottish actor has racked up an enviably eclectic mix of roles on both the screen and stage, ranging from cult comedy and prestige drama to action-packed blockbusters and family-friendly adventure movies.

Who else, after all, can say they’ve played a James Bond villain and a Marvel superhero, shared the screen with Carrie Bradshaw and Fred Flintstone or spent time in the Traitors castle, the Spice Busand a tiny camper van with Miriam Margolyes?

As a result, Alan says that when he’s approached in public, it’s “really hard to tell” which part of his vast CV it is that people are going to want to talk to him about.

“It varies hugely, and it depends on the demographic,” he tells HuffPost UK.

“With young people, it usually tends to be Sky Kids. A whole generation of kids grew up with me as a sort of part of their childhood. It’s really lovely, actually, when young adults approach me in a really awe-struck way because of those films.”

James Bond, he says, is another obvious “big one”, as are the X-Men movies (he played a secret minion of Sean Bean’s villainous “Janus” opposite Pierce Brosnan in 1995’s GoldenEye, and is due to reprise his role of Nightcrawler from the X-Men series in the next Avengers film), while “theatre geeks” will often want to discuss his stint as the Emcee in the musical Cabaret, for which he won his first Tony Award.

Alan Cumming lists Spy Kids, X-Men and the James Bond movie Goldeneye among some of his most recognisable film roles

Understandably, these days he’s also getting a lot of attention in public for his work on the reality TV juggernaut The Traitors (he’s been presenting the American version since 2023, and has already won four Emmys as both its host and producer), though he says he’s still just as likely to be approached about his acclaimed BBC comedy The High Life and his Emmy-nominated guest appearance in The Good Wife.

“Sometimes it’s funny because people come up to you and say lines from something – and it’s kind of embarrassing if you forget,” he admits.

“Romy And Michele is a case in point – we are going to do a sequel to that, so I have tried to get familiar more with it, I’ll have to watch it again – but people will come up and quote me lines from that, and I’m just like, ‘what the fuck are you talking about?’. It’s so funny.”

“Or sometimes they say a line and they go like that,” he says, leaving a pregnant pause in the air. “...Expecting you to finish it.

“It’s always really fascinating. I’ve been doing this for 40 years, and I’ve never stopped working, so there’s a lot of content out there. And, of course, the longer you do it, the more things there could possibly be.”

“But I love when people – they mean well! – but they say things like that, ‘I’m probably the only person to have ever seen this film…’, and you think, ‘oh fuck you! And no, you’re not, bitch!’” he adds with a laugh.

Alan Cumming appeared opposite (and danced alongside!) Mira Sorvino and Lisa........

© HuffPost