Alan Cumming Revealed How Much Acting He Does While Hosting The Traitors

From the moment that The Traitors premiered, the hit reality show has featured a lot of backstabbing and intrigue. Since The Traitors keeps fans guessing, fans of the show want to know things like what they can expect from the upcoming third season. While there are a lot of reasons why The Traitors is one of Peacock's best reality shows, Alan Cumming plays a huge role in the show's success.

Since he is so great in the role, The Traitors has earned Alan a lot of new fans who love him so much they want to know about his involvement in Chimp Crazy. What many of those fans don't realize, however, is how much acting Alan does as the host of The Traitors.

Why Hosting The Traitors May Be Alan Cumming's Hardest Acting Job

Throughout Alan Cumming's acting career, he has enjoyed a great deal of success. After all, Alan has starred in movies like the Spy Kids trilogy, GoldenEye, Emma, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Spice World, Eyes Wide Shut, and X2. Alan has also been memorable in shows like The Good Wife and his stage performances have garnered awards.

After he enjoyed all that success as an actor, Alan's career seemed to take a surprising turn when he became the host of The Traitors. However, it turns out that Alan's career may not have changed as much as most observers thought.

After winning praise for how great he is as The Traitors' host, Alan has spoken out about what the show is like for him. Based on comments Alan has made, it actually seems like hosting The Traitors may be his hardest acting job yet.

In January 2024, the UK's version of Cosmopolitan spoke to someone who starred in that country's version of The Traitors. As a part of that article, it was revealed that it took weeks of very long days to film a season of that show. While that version of the show isn't the one Alan hosts, it seems extremely likely the filming process is similar.

With that in mind, it seems likely that if Alan viewed hosting The Traitors as an acting role, it would be very challenging. After all, even though Alan is obviously used to having to remain in character for long hours, doing so as the host of The Traitors would almost certainly be harder for two reasons.

First off, Alan would have to remain in character amid a huge amount of tension, as he has to watch people betray each other, turn on each other, and get things wrong. Not being able to react to real things that are highly emotional around you for weeks on end would be hard for anyone.

While talking to Distractify in 2023, Alan revealed how emotionally difficult hosting The Traitors can be for him. "It was kind of awful for me because I was playing this quite stern character and I would find out things about them that are what they thought was true. And knowing that it just wasn't and not being able to say anything and be very sort of noncommittal, I find that really hard."

On top of that, knowing that a lot of viewers may not grasp that the version of him from The Traitors is a character would likely add a whole new level of stress. After all, nobody wants to be misunderstood by millions of people. With those things in mind, the final thing to consider is whether Alan sees hosting The Traitors as an acting role.

In 2024, Alan Cumming took the Emmy Awards by storm when he won Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program. That achievement was even more incredible considering that RuPaul had a stranglehold on that award for almost a decade.

If that wasn't impressive enough, Alan also often makes hosting The Traitors look easy. However, a pair of articles from August 2024 revealed that hosting The Traitors is a lot more challenging for Alan than most fans realize.

In August 2024, The Hollywood Reporter published an article that revealed that Alan sees hosting The Traitors as an acting role of sorts.

In addition to hosting The Traitors, Alan continues to work as a professional actor. For example, Alan stars in a 2024 movie called Drive Back Home which premiered at the 2024 Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival.

While talking to the outlet, Alan talked about how much work he puts into The Traitors as an acting role. In fact, Alan compared hosting The Traitors to some of the acting roles that were the most celebrated of his career.

I act my socks off in The Traitors, just like I did on The Good Wife, and it’s this very juicy thing like I do in the theater or would do at the Tonys.

A separate August 2024 article from The Hollywood Reporter also included some of Alan's other reflections on acting when he hosts The Traitors.

Alan Cumming is an example of a recent trend of a slew of actors being chosen to host reality shows. For example, Joe Manganiello is hosting Deal or No Deal Island, Jeffrey Dean Morgan is set to host Destination X, and Joel McHale is hosting House of Villains.

That article notably included Alan revealing that the clothes he wears as the host of The Traitors is a part of the acting he does on the show.

"Obviously it’s me — his name’s Alan Cumming — but obviously it’s not really me. I don’t really sound like that. I don’t dress like that. I don’t have a castle. Alas, that’s too bad.”

Based on the above two quotes, Alan clearly sees hosting The Traitors as a serious acting role. That alone is reason enough to think the show may be one of the hardest acting performances of his career. However, there is one more quote that is very revealing about how difficult the role is for Alan.

As a part of The Hollywood Reporter article that was cited first above, Alan explained how important his outfits on The Traitors are to him.

In The Hollywood Reporter's article that was cited second, Alan revealed a part of hosting The Traitors that adds another layer of effort — that he isn't a reality show addict. For that reason, Alan revealed he has to do research for his role. “I don’t really know who a lot of them are, but I really study very hard.”

Alan told the outlet that the outfits he wears and getting hair and makeup helps him to commit to his role as the show's host.

“Being on a film, you get dressed in the morning, get into your costume and makeup and hair. That is very important for me, to understand who the character is.”

Clearly, Alan takes his acting role as The Traitors' host so seriously that he uses things to get into character. That further illustrates that he stays in his hosting character for long hours while also dealing with the previously outlined stresses. While it is impossible to know if hosting The Traitors is Alan's hardest acting role, unless he says that himself, there is virtually no doubt that it is extremely challenging.

Does Alan Cumming Enjoy Hosting The Traitors?

In March 2024, Forbes published an article after talking to Alan Cumming about what it is like hosting The Traitors. That article revealed that hosting The Traitors is even more stressful for Alan than fans realized.

While speaking to Forbes, Alan revealed that since he is one of The Traitors' producers he feels a lot of pressure to protect the show's secrets. “I’m very conscious about [not giving anything away]. I have a responsibility now.” However, based on what Alan told the outlet, it seems like a different part of each season is extremely stressful for him.

During each season of The Traitors, there is a moment when all the players are blindfolded as Alan chooses the traitors. Alan explained to Forbes how stressful filming that moment is for him.

My heart is pounding.

Even though Alan is clearly under a lot of pressure, he also told Forbes how incredibly entertained he is by watching the show play out in front of him. “When I'm watching it, I'm like a viewer. I'm completely obsessed.” Ultimately, the first cited article from The Hollywood Reporter revealed that despite everything, Alan loves hosting The Traitors.

“I really love doing it. I love the fact it’s connected with everyone in this way. Everyone’s really obsessed by it.”

The Traitors fans have to be overjoyed that Alan still enjoys hosting the show, since it would be so disappointing if he quit.