Alan Cumming

The Tony Award-winning Scottish actor Alan Cumming attends the 2011 OUT100 at the Skylight SOHO on November 17, 2011 in New York City.

Alan Cumming played Fegan Floop in the "Spy Kids" movies.

The actor told Serena Altschul that he is equally attracted to children's films as he is more grown-up fare. "Some days I want to be, you know, just about esoteric and challenged in a way that I think I'm going to burst. And other times I just want to eat popcorn and laugh."

Alan Cumming and Sandrine Bonnaire starred in the 1992 TV movie "Prague," Cumming's first full-length feature. He played a young man who returns to his ancestral home searching for film footage of his grandparents being taken away by Nazis during World War II.

Alan Cumming starred as the Master of Ceremonies in the 1993 Sam Mendes-directed revival of "Cabaret" produced by the U.K.'s Donmar Warehouse. Cumming later transferred with the production to Broadway's Roundabout Theater, winning a Tony Award for Best Actor opposite Natasha Richardson's Sally Bowles.

Cumming told Altschul that the show "kind of completely changed my life." In fact, the notoriety extended far beyond Broadway: "I would go to somewhere in the middle of America, I would go into a cafe and people would say, 'You're the 'Cabaret' guy!' And I'd say, 'Oh, did you see the show?' And they're like, 'No.'"

From left: Alan Cumming, Marie Mullen, Natasha Richardson and Anthony LaPaglia pose with their Tonys backstage at the 1998 Tony Awards in New York's Radio City Music Hall Sunday, June 7, 1998. Cumming and Richardson won Best Leading Actor and Actress in a Musical for their roles in "Cabaret." Mullen won Best Leading Actress in a Play for her role in "The Beauty Queen of Leenane." Lapaglia won Best Leading Actor in a Play for his part in "A View from the Bridge."

Alab Cumming as computer programmer Boris Grishenko in the James Bond adventure "GoldenEye" (1995). Also pictured is Izabella Scorupco as Natalya Simonova.

Alan Cumming appeared in "Circle of Friends" (1995), based on Maeve Binchy's romantic novel.

Alan Cumming played Mr. Elton in Douglas McGrath's 1996 filming of Jane Austen's "Emma." Also starring were Gwyneth Paltrow, Toni Collette, Ewan McGregor and Jeremy Northam.

Alan Cumming and Anthony Hopkins in Julie Taymor's film of Shakespeare's "Titus," set in a fantasy of Shakespearean/fascist Italy.

Alan Cumming and Jessica Lange in Julie Taymor's "Titus," based on Shakespeare's violent revenge play, "Titus Andronicus."

Alan Cumming reteamed with Douglas McGrath for "Company Man" (2000), a comedy in which a teacher accidentally joins the CIA. Cumming played the dictator of Cuba, General Batista.

Alan Cumming appeared in the Sylvester Stallone gangland thriller "Get Carter" (2000), a remake of a 1971 crime film starring Michael Caine.

Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh (right) co-wrote, co-directed, co-produced and starred in "The Anniversary Party" (2001), a comedy-drama film about a separated couple reuniting to celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary. The ensemble cast also included Jane Adams, Phoebe Cates, Kevin Kline, Parker Posey, John C. Reilly and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Alan Cumming played Wyatt Frame, a con artist who manages young artists for a record company, in the 2001 film "Josie and the Pussycats."

Alan Cumming as Mr. Folair and Nathan Lane as Vincent Crummles in Douglas McGrath's 2002 film of Charles Dickens' "Nicholas Nickleby."

Alan Cumming portrayed Nightcrawler in the second "X-Men" movie, "X2" (2003), in which he attempts to assassinate the President of the United States using his special mutant powers.

Alan Cumming played multiple roles in a Showtime filming of the Off-Broadway musical "Reefer Madness" (2005), based on the infamous 1936 exploitation film demonizing marijuana and its users.

Alan Cumming played Loki in "Son of the Mask" (2005), the sequel to the Jim Carrey comedy.

Elizabeth Reaser as Inge and Alan Cumming as Frandsen in Ali Selim's "Sweet Land" (2006), about a mail order bride in 1920 Minnesota. Cumming was a co-producer of the film, which won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.

Alan Cumming starred as Glitch in the SciFi Channel miniseries "Tin Man" (2007), a reimagining of L. Frank Baum's tales set in Oz. Also starring, from left: Raoul Trujillo as Raw, Zooey Deschanel as DG, and Neal McDonough as Cain.

From left: Tom Conti, Helen Mirren, David Strathairn, Alan Cumming and Chris Cooper in Julie Taymor's film adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (2010).

Chris Cooper as Antonio and Alan Cumming as Sebastian in Julie Taymor's film of "The Tempest."

Alan Cumming appeared as the Traitor Caretaker in the TV film "Riverworld" (2010), based on the series of novels by science fiction author Philip Jose Farmer.

Alan Cumming attends the premiere of "The Smurfs" at the Ziegfeld Theater on July 24, 2011, in New York. Cumming provided the voice of Gutsy.

AP Photo/National Theatre of Scotland, Manuel Harlan

Alan Cumming stars in the National Theatre of Scotland production of "Macbeth." In the solo performance, Cumming appears as a patient in a white-tiled mental hospital for whom the plot of "Macbeth" is sort of a schizophrenic nightmare.

Eli Gold (Alan Cumming) has a personal interest in Natalie Flores (America Ferrera), Wendy Scott-Carr's illegal ex-nanny, on "The Good Wife."

Garret Dillahunt and Alan Cumming in "Any Day Now," playing a gay couple attempting to rescue a disabled boy. But after taking the child into their home, a court says "No."

After being given numerous gay-rights awards, Cumming felt the film spoke to basic human rights. "I think it's about being Scottish, actually. I think we have a really big sense of sniffing out injustice. It's something that's just ingrained into you. 'That's not fair' is like a mantra in my country."

Alan Cumming and his partner Grant Shaffer.

Alan Cumming attends the Elton John AIDS Foundation's 11th Annual An Enduring Vision Benefit at Cipriani Wall Street on October 15, 2012 in New York City.

Alan Cumming attends the New York premiere of "Jane Eyre" at the Tribeca Grand Hotel Screening Room on March 9, 2011, in New York.

Alan Cumming and Rosario Dawson at The Theatre at Lincoln Center on Feb. 12, 2011, in New York.

Actor Alan Cumming attends a special screening of the Sundance Selects film, "How to Survive a Plague," a documentary about the AIDS epidemic.