ALAN CUMMING
The Tony-winning Scottish-american actor, 53, tells WHO’S Cynthia Wang about “being kind of a badass” on his new series, Instinct (Wednesdays at 8.30 PM on Ten) and celebrating love.
How fun is it playing Dylan Reinhart, an EX-CIA, gun-wielding professor and bestselling author?
Oh, it’s so good. I love that he’s a dandy and I love seeing on Twitter the day after the show goes out people raving about how many different outfits he wore. And also being kind of a badass. It’s not really where I thought I would be in my sixth decade, but I like it.
On the show, Dylan’s relationship with Andy is depicted so normally.
It may seem normal, but for millions of people in America, it’s the first time they will have ever seen a same-sex relationship portrayed on television. And the fact that it’s one that’s not full of angst and it’s not where their sexuality is the main thrust of the narrative, to me, it’s really important.
Now that we have marriage equality, will you and husband Grant Shaffer renew your vows here?
Oh, we love going to Australia. I’ve been to Sydney lots and lots of times, and I have really lovely friends there and they’re really involved in the campaign, so yeah, maybe we will next time.
You are also a marriage celebrant now. How has that role been?
It’s so beautiful. It’s actually the most amazing thing to be with people at that moment of their lives and be the person that’s tying it all up for them and ceremonialising just an incredible thing in their life. I’m sure I’ll be doing it for a long, long time. And I’ve got my funny yet soulful kind of schtick now! It’s a great thing.
Harriette Pilbeam, 25, has seen her star rise ever since uploading “Try” to Triple J’s Unearthed website in May 2017. Now the Brisbane artist, who was the talk of the South By Southwest festival in Texas in March, has released her first EP, Sugar & Spice. She tells WHO’S Alexandra Mccarthy about music that has sweetened her life.
The singers who remind me of my childhood The Spice Girls. I have very distinct memories of making up dance routines to their music with my sisters and my cousins, and even, like, I think my mum was really into their albums as well. She would always put them on, so very family vibes for me. I was Baby because I was youngest and I had blonde hair. Live performance that had a great impact When I saw the Cure at Splendour in the Grass a few years ago , that was a show I was blown away by. Song you wish you had written Oh my God, so many! Maybe “Temptation” by New Order because that’s one of my favourite songs ever. I would love to collaborate with ... Charlie XCX or Caroline Polachek from the band Chairlift. I think they’re both amazing. They’re both incredible writers and producers, and they’re really fun and intelligent women. First album I ever bought I think it was Welcome Interstate Managers by Fountains of Wayne, who sang that song “Stacy’s Mom”. I really liked that song when I was in primary school, and I only bought it for that song, but it ended up actually being a really great album that I still revisit every now and then, and I love it.
The Gruen panellist, 48, tests his mind, body and spirit once more on Body Hack 2.0 (starting Thurs., May 31 at 8.30 PM on Ten). But first, he must survive this chat with WHO’S Cynthia Wang.
The Sadhus of India suffer pain for enlightenment. Do you?
That’s a good question. I guess physical training is that—i put myself through forced hardship and simulated hardship to be physically able, and I do that regularly. Sometimes I bring myself to the point of I’m ready to kind of vomit from the activity, but that’s artificial forced hardship. It’s certainly not holding your arm up for 19 years.
Firefighting or fighting kung-fu masters?
The kung-fu masters were taking it easy on me! Firefighting reminded me that bravery is something that you can learn. It’s a life skill, and you can practise micro-bravery.
If your daughters, Coco, 11, and Jet, 8, wanted to film a show called Junior Body
would you let them?
Hack, We try to make holidays as interesting as possible, and I do adventures with them, climbing and stuff, but if they ever said to me, “I would like to make film about X,” or they were like, “I want to climb Mount Everest,” I’d be absolutely thrilled.
If your life story were a film, would it be a comedy or a drama?
It would definitely be more comedy than drama, but it would be an adventure series, I could tell you that.
Is there any challenge you want to see Russel Howcroft do?
I would like to see Russel do some meditation— that’d be good.
Someone is wearing the same T-shirt. Now what?
I only wear black or blue unbranded, no-image T-shirts in my real life. It’s endless, bumping into people wearing exactly the same T-shirt as me!