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Banish Me, Daddy
Alan Cumming is reshaping the idea of a reality TV host with his unbending performance as the mad king of Traitors.
And so, decades into a career that has spanned Edinburgh Fringe to Broadway, art house to X-Men, gay-rights advocacy, children’s-book authorship, fragrance sciences, and a late-career turn as a barman, Cumming is adjudicating scavenger hunts and presiding over D-list-on-D-list-violence. Many of his improvisations have become crucial to the series’ formula; when I tell him that Traitors U.K. host Claudia Winkleman copied his invention of smashing the latest murder victim’s portrait on the floor at breakfast, he gasps, “Bitch stole my look!” Also informing the show’s tone, and often stealing the show entirely, is Cumming’s wardrobe, a collaboration with stylist Sam Spector in which they invented a “dandy Scottish Laird” character for Cumming to play by augmenting jewel-toned tartans and tams — many of them from his own closet — with extravagant flourishes like brooches, ruffles, and sashes. Bravo against the others.” When alliances in the game are built on long-standing personal histories, it makes those moments of fissure — like when current RHOA cast member Shereé Whitfield wisens up to Parks and votes her out — that much more impactful.
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