Alan Cumming Has Thoughts On X-Men 2's Queer Subtext

During a caller interrogation with Entertainment Weekly reflecting connected his agelong vocation successful Hollywood, Alan Cumming cited 2003’s X2: X-Men United arsenic “the gayest movie [he’s] ever done.”

“Oh, I deliberation the X-Men movie I’m successful is the gayest movie that I’ve ever done, and that’s maine saying that. It’s got a queer director, tons of queer actors successful it. I emotion the information that thing truthful mainstream and truthful successful the comic publication satellite is truthful queer,” Cumming told EW. “I think, successful a way, those sorts of films truly assistance radical recognize queerness, due to the fact that you tin code it successful an creator way, and everyone is little frightened of the concept. It’s an allegory astir queerness, astir radical having these large gifts and truly great, almighty things that they person to fell to exist. Queer radical recognize what that’s each about.”

In a filmography that includes The L Word, Cabaret, Josie and the Pussycats, Schmigadoon! and Spice World, singling retired the 2nd X-Men movie arsenic his “gayest” whitethorn look similar a eccentric choice, but helium isn’t wrong.

The franchise’s mutant metaphor has ever spoken good to queer audiences, inspiring galore queer readings of the X-Men and its beloved characters implicit the years. In X2, the country successful which Iceman reveals his mutant powers to his parents is truthful unsubtly coded, you’d person to beryllium willfully obtuse not to work it arsenic an allegory for coming out. And it’s possibly particularly prescient to perceive Cumming sermon that from the position of having played Nightcrawler—a quality who has some often been the taxable of queer readings with his narration with Wolverine, but besides comes from a queer household himself done his mothers Mystique and Destiny, a information that was ever intended to beryllium the lawsuit but was lone recently officially acknowledged successful the comics.

That said, fixed everything we’ve learned astir Bryan Singer successful the years since X2—and successful peculiar astir his behavior connected set during X2's filming—maybe we don’t person to springiness him points for contributing to Cumming’s cognition of the movie arsenic the gayest enactment he’s been portion of.

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