It's about how you exist as a person in the world, and the idea that your work is more important than you as a person is a horrible, horrible message. I always think about a little gay boy in Wisconsin or a little lesbian in Arkansas seeing someone like me, and if I cannot be open in my life, how on earth can they?

Pantomime is a big thing in the cultural calendar of my country, you know. So subtlety's not my forte.

It is not hard to feel like an outsider. I think we have all felt like that at one time or another.

Sometimes people do you a favour when they drop out of your life.

I'm quite good, though I say it myself, at making strangers feel at ease.

I wouldn't do my roles if I really hated it. I've done things I hated, but I didn't go into them thinking I would hate them. I want to have fun. I don't want to go to work and not enjoy it. So if I'm swirling around on some wires, talking to Fred Flintstone, I make it the funnest I can. I also want to be good at it. I don't want to be a crap cartoon character. I want to be proud I'm a vitamin!

There are some days when you don't feel like being Alan Cumming.