On Friday, Alan Cumming will welcome 21 new contestants to the second season Traitors — plus one furry friend.
Cumming, 58, tells PEOPLE that his dog Lala will be by his side when he hosts the new season of the Peacock reality competition. The actor planned to have the pup join him in the first season to help him make his own Traitors persona more “like a James Bond villain,” he says, but COVID got in the way.
“She was supposed to come last time, but because of COIVD, her shots expired when the vet was closed, so I couldn’t travel with her for a few months,” explains Cumming.
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The Tony Award winner won praise for his first-season outfits, which included tartan suits and a velvet purple smoking jacket. This season, Cumming, who works with stylist Sam Spector, teases a more “campy” look featuring capes, capes and “mission themed hats.” “I love that I’ve brought capes back into the fashion lexicon,” she jokes.
Of course, Lala will also join the fashion fun.
“She’s got a little closet up there,” Cumming says, referring to the Scottish castle in which Traitors movies. “He’s got a few matches. He’s got a little cloak.”
Alan Cumming in ‘The Traitors’.
Euan Cherry/PAUN via Getty
Lala is not new to the glamor that comes with the screens.
“She’s been on camera a lot by now,” says Cumming. “She’s really a professional. She’s very well mannered. She’s quite used to film sets and things like that. She’s done a few things.”
Lala’s star is so great that she is recognized on the street. I was walking her, and the lady just said, ‘Is that Lala?'” recalls the four-time Emmy nominee. “And I said, ‘Yes.’ And she said, ‘Oh, it’s a lot smaller than it looks in the pictures.’ I said, ‘We all look bigger on TV.’ ”
Cumming believes that Lala creates “a nicer, friendlier atmosphere” on set, especially one like this Traitors, where all contestants want to walk away with the $250,000 grand prize. He finds Season 2 and its all-celebrity cast “much more intense” than Season 1, which included lay contestants.
“I think people know what the game is now,” Cumming says. “They all wear their games on their sleeves, definitely. It’s much more aware. Traitors in the first conversation are very aware of how good people have been in the past at this sort of thing and whether or not it’s beneficial to them Traitor or not. And double bluffing, raised has taken it to a higher level, which I really think will be fireworks.”
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Alan Cumming in ‘The Traitors’.
Euan Cherry/PAUN via Getty
The Scots native says “there’s a class system” among the second-season cast based on the shows they’ve all appeared on previously.
“Survived [contestants] they’re a bit snobbish about the Housewives,” Cumming continues. “But the British, like John [Bercow] and Ekin-Su [Cülcüloğlu], I don’t think anyone knew who John was, no one has a clue. And that’s funny.”
Cumming interviews all the contestants at the start of the season, but the producers have the final say on who turns traitor and who stays loyal.
“It’s not ultimately up to me, but I’m definitely a part of it,” he says. “It’s actually great. Sam [Rees-Jones], the producer that’s in my ear, literally the voice in my head, we talk about things all the time because when I’m here on the floor or on missions, whatever, I talk to them. But under my breath, I say things to him, and he says things to me.”
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Traitor or faithful, Cumming advises the contestants: “Keep calm, bring your jackets.”
“What amazes me is how intelligent people do the stupidest things, that I would probably do the same because you are in this world,” Romy and Michele’s high school reunion says the star. “That’s why this combination Big Brotherand Survived, and Clue, I guess. It’s a combination of these things. It’s like three shows all on top, like a sandwich.”
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Traitors season two premieres Friday on the Peacock.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education