{"id":444,"date":"2025-11-15T17:58:56","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T17:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/badvibes.live\/?p=444"},"modified":"2025-11-15T17:58:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T17:58:56","slug":"alan-cumming-ice-raids-are-terrifying-im-lucky-i-have-another-life-in-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badvibes.live\/?p=444","title":{"rendered":"Alan Cumming: \u2018ICE raids are terrifying \u2013 I\u2019m lucky I have another life in Scotland\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Alan Cumming<\/a>\u00a0has\u00a0lived in the US for over 25 years<\/a>, but now more than ever he\u2019s grateful to have a Scottish bolthole.<\/p>\n

Fully fledged New Yorker Alan, 60, describes \u2018terrifying\u2019 ICE raids that took place just miles away from his current position as he chats with\u00a0Metro<\/strong>\u00a0over the phone.<\/p>\n

\u2018I am very lucky that I have another life and another existence in\u00a0Scotland<\/a>, and it\u2019s just sort of funny, I\u2019m walking along the street right now in New York, and you wouldn\u2019t know anything was different,\u2019 explains Alan, who became a US citizen in 2008.<\/p>\n

\u2018But this is New York, and yet ICE have been less than a mile away from me right now in Chinatown, taking people off the streets. It\u2019s terrifying.<\/p>\n

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\u2018People are afraid to speak out, and people are afraid of losing their jobs and people are afraid of being deported. It\u2019s f**king ridiculous. It\u2019s awful.\u2019<\/p>\n

Alan often travels between Scotland and the US, as he presents the US version of the Traitors, but he\u2019s also putting on an LGBTQ+ theatre festival in the Perthshire town of Pitlochry in January.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Out in the Hills event, which Alan promises will be a \u2018weekend of queer joy\u2019, is attracting the likes of Sir\u00a0Ian McKellen<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Graham Norton<\/a>\u00a0to the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, of which he is artistic director, on January 16 to 18 for productions, discussions and readings.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t hard to get these names on board.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was easy. They are friends of mine. People have been so supportive of what I\u2019m trying to do, trying to put Pitlochry on the map. Also, a queer Festival at a time when queer and trans people are being so attacked, I can think they saw that it was a really good time to celebrate people and make a stance,\u2019 Alan says.<\/p>\n

While Alan won\u2019t answer the question about what\u2019s the most exciting part of the event, \u2018I\u2019m not going to do that. I can\u2019t do that, Kitty. I love all of them,\u2019 he is excited about his role in a cast of six for a brand new stage play, Me and the Girls, which is a Neil Bartlett adaptation of Noel Coward\u2019s 1964 short story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On what inspired him to put on the festival, Alan says: \u2018As a queer man, I just feel like it was a good time for several reasons. There\u2019s nothing in the calendar going on at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.<\/p>\n

\u2018In the middle of winter when we have nothing on, [I thought] what could we do to pep up the possibilities for people in Scotland to come and see, and I just think it\u2019s a great time to remind people of the amazing contributions LGBTQ people have made to our culture and our society.\u2019<\/p>\n

With the next series of the US Traitors \u2013 presented by Alan \u2013 landing on Peacock on January 8, his brains were ripe to be picked about the UK\u2019s first\u00a0Celebrity Traitors<\/a>, which was in full dramatic swing at the time of our call.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a weird experience to see Claudia \u2013 she must feel the same with my one I guess \u2013 it\u2019s like someone\u2019s in your house,\u2019 Alan says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2018I think it\u2019s great, I really love it. It\u2019s actually amazing because of course everybody knows each other and don\u2019t have to find out about each other\u2019s characters.<\/p>\n

\u2018So there\u2019s a sort of elite in terms of the game and the psychology of the game, when everyone\u2019s well known.\u2019<\/p>\n

Alan was filming the US version of the show two days after Celebrity Traitors UK had finished, so he knew the shock end result, that Alan Carr would win the series as a traitor.<\/p>\n

\u2018I usually forget [who\u2019s won] by the time it comes around. But I\u2019ve got used to keeping those secrets,\u2019 Alan says.<\/p>\n

As for what\u2019s next for Alan, he will keep on carrying on \u2013 but with a few rests in between.<\/p>\n

\u2018I would still like to keep doing what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m excited and energised by the work I\u2019m doing, I just need to have more gaps between it,\u2019 he explains.<\/p>\n

\u2018That\u2019s my New Year\u2019s resolution. That, and to learn how to play the bagpipes.\u2019<\/p>\n

Get\u00a0tickets<\/a>\u00a0to Pitlochry Festival Theatre\u2019s Out in the Hills festival\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alan Cumming\u00a0has\u00a0lived in the US for over 25 years, but now more than ever he\u2019s grateful to have a Scottish bolthole. Fully fledged New Yorker Alan, 60, describes \u2018terrifying\u2019 ICE raids that took place just miles away from his current position as he chats with\u00a0Metro\u00a0over the phone. \u2018I am very lucky that I have another […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t