Alan Cumming recently took a break from debuting outrageous outfits while lording over Traitors and Faithful on “The Traitors” to reprise a long-ago acting role for a massively anticipated movie.
Earlier this summer, it was revealed that Cumming and his fellow OG “X-Men” co-stars would be reviving their characters in the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday.”
While Marvel fans are beyond psyched for movie’s arrival, Cumming admits that he’s tending to feel somewhat confused about what the movie is actually about.
‘I’m Here to Run Around’
He’ll be reprising the role of mutant Nightcrawler, which he played in just one film, “X2: X-Men United.”
In “Doomsday,” he’ll be joined by co-stars Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn and James Marsden, marking the second time he’s played Nightcrawler — and the first time he’s portrayed the character in 23 years.
As he explained in a new interview with SiriusXM, he shot his scenes in isolation from the rest of the cast. Because of Marvel’s commitment to secrecy, he was only show script pages for his scenes, which left him with only the vaguest understanding of the overall storyline.
“To be honest, I don’t fully understand the plot,” he admitted, while revealing his scenes were pretty action-heavy.
“There was a bit when we were shooting a scene, and it was one of the rare scenes when I was actually on the backlot and not in front of a blue screen,” Cumming said.
“And this man came and said, ‘So right now Alan, these giant robots are blah blah,’ and started to tell me the thing, and I was like, ‘You know what, thank you so much, but just tell me where I point my, whatever I point. And I’ll do that. Really, I just know I’m here to run around,’” he added.
Meeting His Co-Star
According to Cumming, one of his scenes partners him with Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, the new Black Widow.
However, he clarified, he hadn’t actually met her, and instead worked with her body double.
“And I saw Florence Pugh yesterday at the Emmys,” he recalled.
“And I said, ‘Gosh, it’s so funny. I’ve never met you, but you lay on top of me, or your body double did.’ And she goes, ‘Yeah I lay on top of you as well, but it was your body double,’” he added.
Makeup Miracle
In “X2,” the process to transform Cumming into the blue mutant was extensive and laborious. However, new advances in makeup have cut that preparation time down considerably
“Before it was about four and a half hours to apply it, but now it’s only 90 minutes,” Cumming said of the time he spent in makeup for “Avengers: Doomsday.”
One area that became considerably easier involved the facial tattoos his character sports.
“Before, all of the tattoos were done by hand,” Cumming explained. “They hadn’t decided on them before we started filming. Now, they just stick onto my face. It’s a game changer.”
“Avengers: Doomsday” opens in theaters December 18.
Meanwhile, Cumming can currently be seen in “The Traitors: New Blood,” airing Thursdays on NBC.
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Alan Cumming Shares Hilarious ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Update, Admits ‘I Don’t Understand the Plot’