Alan Cumming is mid-sentence when he turns his camera and rolls up his sleeve. This is a Zoom interview of course, and he’s at his home in the Catskills, where he and his husband have spent a large chunk of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the screen, the actor is showing off a tattoo on his inner forearm. It’s two words in what looks like a ye olde typewriter font: “only connect.”
“To me, that’s all that’s important in life: making sure that you connect with people,” he explains. But, as much of the narrative in Cumming’s new book Baggage: Tales From a Fully Packed Life makes clear, he’s also a proponent of cementing that connection with oneself—past, present and future. Seven years ago, Cumming published the memoir Not My Father’s Son, which focused on his abusive childhood and the ripples that trauma wrought on his adult life. Baggage, to be published on Oct. 26, serves both as an examination of that continuing impact and a testament to the ways in which he has overcome it. It’s deeply personal and sometimes aspirational, with copious “do not try this at home” disclaimers that you, the reader, are left wondering if the oft-mischievous Cumming is hoping you’ll at least consider ignoring.
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Read more: Alan Cumming’s Boyhood Was No Cabaret
Cumming is a tireless multi-hyphenate. He’s an actor in iconic films (Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion, Burlesque, Goldeneye, as well as both the Spy Kids and X-Men franchises), TV series (The Good Wife, Instinct, Web Therapy, Schmigadoon!) and theatrical productions (Bent, The Threepenny Opera, Macbeth, and multiple turns in Cabaret, for which he won a Tony award in 1998), as well as a writer, producer, activist and New York City club owner. Baggage weaves together his experiences in all these roles—as well as tales of his relationships and dalliances, travels and famous friends—into a neat and engaging narrative. Here, in an interview with TIME, he unpacks it all.
TIME: I’d love to start with…
Source : time
