Alan Cumming is in his dressing room on the set of “The Traitors,” where a rack of flamboyant costumes hangs behind him. After finding a treat for his dog Lala, who occasionally makes an appearance on the Peacock competition series, he sits down in front of his computer and sighs. “I just interviewed 23 people,” he says, speaking over Zoom during his lunch break. “I’m exhausted.”

Cumming, 61, has every reason to be tired. He just returned to Scotland from Los Angeles, where he won his third consecutive Emmy for reality host for “The Traitors.” He serves as artistic director of the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, where he recently starred in “A History of Paper” and will play Henry Higgins in a November production of “My Fair Lady.” “The Traitors: New Blood,” Cumming’s fifth season as host, is airing Thursdays on NBC, and he’s already filming Season 6, set for early 2027.

“This year has been too much,” Cumming admits. “I am always busy. But I’ve started saying no or taking a week off between things.” He grins. “I’m aware my schedule is so insane.”

However, the actor will always find time for something meaningful, as is the case with “Tip Toe,” a five-episode limited series premiering Friday on Starz (the series had its U.K. debut in May). It was written by prolific British screenwriter Russell T Davies, who had Cumming in mind to play Leo Struthers, a queer bar owner in Manchester. The series navigates the tumultuous relationship between Leo and his neighbor Clive Goss (David Morrissey), a family man whose conservative views are problematically reinforced by the internet. His unchanging mind leads to an act of extreme violence against Leo.

Alan Cumming as Leo and David Morrissey as Clive in “Tip Toe,” premiering Friday on Starz.

(Ben Blackall)

“I met with Russell to talk about ‘Doctor Who’ when he was first rebooting it and we’ve been trying to work together ever since,” Cumming says. “He pitched this to me before it was written, and it was a confluence of all the things I believe in and want to do as an artist. It’s about a real, present danger in our society.”

The story was inspired by Davies’ former neighbor, who sometimes used his keys to let himself into the writer’s house. But he says the bigger story “was my anxiety and horror and fear about the way the world is heading.”

“We all worry about our online lives, but recently the way the online voice is moving into the real world is becoming absolutely terrifying,” says Davies, speaking separately over video call. “Whether it’ll ever change anyone’s mind, I don’t know because I’ve been writing this queer stuff for four decades now and God knows all I’ve seen is the world get worse around us. I hope I’ve made a good and resonant and accurate matter of historical record of what it feels like in 2026.”

It was Cumming’s suggestion to cast Morrissey as Clive. The actors met nearly 40 years ago and have been longtime friends, although they’d never appeared together onscreen before. The dynamic between Leo, who runs a bar filled with young queer and trans employees, and Clive, whose teenage son is grappling with his own sexuality, required true intensity. Clive is emotionally and physically threatening toward Leo, which was hard for Cumming to shake off.

“This was an incredibly traumatic thing to do,” Cumming says of filming the series. “It helped having this solid [friendship] at the center of it. We were telling such a potent, brutal story. The reaction when it came out in Britain, where people were shocked and concerned for me … now I feel it’s going to happen again.” He pauses. “It was an incredible thing to do, but very intense.”

Cumming and Morrissey often checked in with each other on set. Cumming says that allowed him to really push himself. “The trust went both ways, and it enabled us both to go to a darker place,” Cumming says. “It was still scary and it was still physical. I didn’t always feel safe in my body, but I always felt that trust with David.”

“This was an incredibly traumatic thing to do,” Cumming says of filming the series. “It helped having this solid [friendship] at the center of it.”

(Christopher Patey / For The Times)

“We always made sure we had each other,” Morrissey adds, speaking later over video call. “There was an ability to be honest. There was a real freedom in what we were doing, which was to do with our friendship, but also to do with the professionalism of the people around us and them allowing us to do that.”

“Tip Toe” raises a lot of big questions. It’s set in 2026 and the characters reference present-day politicians, including President Trump, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. It explores online rhetoric and how it’s being absorbed, particularly by the younger generation. It also reflects on how hatred can prevail and how there’s often a tendency to blame others. Even while filming the show in Manchester last fall, Cumming could see it all happening in real time.

“One day on set I was walking Lala around a little park and there were all of these Union Jack flags hung around it by some horrible nationalist organization,” he recalls. “It felt like a similar thing to how in America the stars and stripes has been co-opted as a sign of MAGA and the right wing and nationalism. It’s become the very antithesis of what America stands for, which is welcoming people from all over and being a nation of immigrants.”

The show’s ending is horrific and bleak. It underscores the dangers of mob mentality and the manosphere, while also emphasizing that despite all of the progress LGBTQ+ people have made, they are still in serious peril. Davies says he has always given his shows a happy ending, including “It’s a Sin,” which was about the AIDS epidemic. But not this one.

“This is the first time I’ve turned around and gone, ‘Actually, sometimes life is f— awful and terrible things happen,’” Davies says. “Sometimes life is just awful and sometimes drama has to stare that in the face. It’s a warning.”

Morrissey adds, “We want our stories to make us feel better, but that’s not always the case. We can only have a better life if we take these lessons and use them. This was happening every day in the news, and it was important that we didn’t sugarcoat it.”

Cumming recognizes the power of entertainment. He wants to take on projects that have a message or a meaning, and that can convey the state of the world. As an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, Cumming sees “Tip Toe” as an opportunity to shake people up.

“I love doing something like ‘The Traitors,’ where I’m playing this big theatrical thing, but also I really love doing things where I’m completely raw and vulnerable,” Cumming says. “I get it that this is traumatizing. But we need to be traumatized.”

Although Cumming has been acting for decades, both onscreen and in the theater, he hasn’t had this sort of dramatic starring role recently. For Morrissey, it’s a reminder of his friend’s talent.

“There’s a sense of him being seen as a personality, especially in America,” Morrissey says. “But what I’m really looking forward to with ‘Tip Toe’ is people discovering him as this really wonderful dramatic actor again. When I first saw Alan act, he was playing roles that would break your heart. It’s great to see him back in a role that demands so much of him.”

Even Cumming acknowledges that his work in “Tip Toe” is one of his “finest acting performances.”

“I don’t think I’ve been as unvain ever before,” he says. “And willing to let myself be seen in such an open way. There just aren’t roles like this when you’re in your 60s. I’m not going to be hanging around waiting for the next Leo or I’d never work again.”

He laughs. “I’ve never really had this forward trajectory in my life or career. I feel I’ve sort of tumbled through life. I do something over here and then something over there. But doing ‘Tip Toe,’ which seems small compared to ‘The Traitors,’ made me realize how important it is to stick to my guns.”

Of course, Cumming is still happy to put on a glittery outfit, amp up his Scottish accent and pretend to be the lord of the castle on “The Traitors.” He particularly enjoyed filming “New Blood,” which puts real people to the test as traitors and faithful instead of celebrities.

Cumming in “The Traitors: New Blood,” along with his dog, Lala. “I didn’t really know anything about competition reality shows, but now I can see that ours, with the production value and the way it’s shot and the theatricality, is so different to the other ones.” (Euan Cherry / NBC)

“It had such a lovely, genuine excitement to it,” Cumming says. “I engaged with them in a way that I’ve never engaged with [the contestants] before. I can’t spoil it, but what happens in the narrative of the show is so beautiful. The way it ends is gobsmacking and a bit brutal, but it’s such an incredible story.”

“The Traitors” has given Cumming a new level of celebrity, which he wasn’t expecting going in. “I didn’t really know anything about competition reality shows, but now I can see that ours, with the production value and the way it’s shot and the theatricality, is so different to the other ones,” he says. “It’s exciting to be doing something in a genre that is well worn, but to be doing something new.”

Also upcoming is “Avengers: Doomsday,” which will see Cumming reprise his role as the X-Men member Nightcrawler. He originated the part in 2003’s “X2,” directed by Bryan Singer, who was later accused of sexual misconduct. He compliments the brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, directors of the “Avengers” installment, for the positive experience.

“It was so great to go back to it,” Cumming says. “It really was a very cathartic experience because I had such a miserable time doing the first one.

“The character is another sort of outsider, and I think I play outsiders very well because I understand what that feels like,” he says of Nightcrawler. “He’s very vulnerable and tender, and I think that’s why people connected with him.”

Whatever roles he does, Cumming hopes it will resonate with people. But he wants “Tip Toe,” in particular, to encourage discourse.

“We are living in a really dangerous time,” he says. “We’ve got to stop allowing this hateful rhetoric to continue and to go unchecked. And we have to stop blaming the people who are the most marginalized in our society. We want to engender conversation and shock people into thinking, ‘This could easily happen.’”