If you suppose Alan Cumming, host of the U.S. model of The Traitors, offers off “guy who killed someone” vibes, he’ll chortle — you’re choosing up what he’s placing down. It’s why, in episode 8 of season 2, when he despatched the contestants off on their mission, he gleefully turned to the digital camera and stated, “And they were never seen again.”
“I said that many times, on every task,” Cumming admits. “I wanted that to be my new catchphrase, but they only used it a couple times.”
This is strictly why the crew behind Peacock’s hit actuality recreation present needed Cummings in the first place, even when he didn’t perceive it at first. He met with producers, initially, out of confusion and curiosity.
“I couldn’t understand why they would want me to do it. Then I realized they wanted a sort of character. And I said, ‘Do you mean you want it to be sort of like a James Bond villain?’”
The reply was an enthusiastic sure. And abruptly Cumming might see the complete persona: “He’s the sort of Scottish Laird, and he’s kind of Machiavellian, [and] brings all these people here,” Cumming says. The look could be a type of “dandy” Scottish tartan. Cumming’s canine might even include, so the actor might menacingly pet her whereas staring down contestants.
“I really love this character. And it’s funny, life just flings these things at you that you never would have seen coming. I never thought I would be hosting a big, successful competition reality show in Scotland and a castle with a bunch of reality stars. I mean — you couldn’t make it up. But I obviously go out going through life open to certain things. I’ve always been quite eclectic. And these things come to me and actually, this one I really, really enjoy.”
And it’s a job he takes actually critically. As he will get prepared in the morning he listens in on the gamers’ breakfast dialogue, watching on a giant display screen so he can “really feel a part of it” as he will get able to make his huge entrance. “It’s good for me to understand, when I walk into the room, the mood of the room and the atmosphere,” Cumming says.
Cumming is usually round the citadel, however not with the contestants — after his breakfast entrance he normally has a little bit break when he can look over scripts for the subsequent day, then he and the gamers go to movie the mission. After that, the contestants hang around and Cumming has one other break (he says he’s normally consuming or strolling Lala the canine), however stays briefed on what’s taking place. “When the roundtable comes it really does feel like this big theatrical moment because they all go in and they play this scary music in real life,” Cumming says. “It’s like these little performative spurts. And in between I’m trying to keep an eye on what’s happening and trying to get an understanding of how the wind is blowing.”
Even nonetheless, he’s simply as on the fringe of his seat as the remainder of us. He likes to take care of a distance between himself and the solid (he feels his character ought to all the time have “quite a stern, daddy demeanor” that leaves the contestants scared), and Cumming has been surprised by how issues went as soon as he acquired into the room. (*2*)
While he wouldn’t say who that was about, he would say a few of the contestants he’s most surprised by: Bergie (when he grew to become the MVP of the graveyard problem), Phaedra (he appreciates her showmanship and the method it supplies her cowl), and Parvati (he hadn’t watched Survivor, and she or he appeared like a “sweet little thing with a hairband”).
But even with a more in-depth view, he’s simply as wanting to let all of it play out as the remainder of us. Well, type of — at the very least the remainder of us don’t dwell in worry about bumping the flawed shoulder when choosing traitors at the roundtable.
The Traitors season 2 (the U.S. model) airs new episodes on Peacock each Thursday at 6 p.m. PST/9 p.m. EST.
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