Alan Cumming is always looking to one-up himself — and not just with his fashion.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly on the first day of filming The Traitors season 3 — as part of our 2024 LGBTQ+ Pride cover story — the host reveals how he and the team behind the hit Peacock reality competition are changing the game for their third outing.

"Having the freedom to push the boundaries like we've been doing, that's made it really exciting," says the Tony winner. "It's great to see that working — with viewers' interest in the show — so that when we come back to it each season, we kind of up the ante a bit more."

Lenne Chai

Cumming reveals he pushed for more queer representation after the early banishment of RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Peppermint on season 2, which wasn't a "good look in the world we live in," given that she was the only trans person — and one of the only queer people. But demographic changes aren't the only alterations as the show evolves: "This season's very different, and it's got a whole new series of challenges for me as well as for the contestants," says Cumming, who admits he's still feeling out his role as host.

"I'm still working on it all. I don't feel I've figured it all out," he says. "I didn't quite understand why they wanted me to do it. But I met with them and I realized that it was because they wanted me to be theatrical and camp, to play this larger-than-life character, and create the mood of the whole show. Once I understood that, I was really on board."

Euan Cherry/PEACOCK

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Cumming says working with stylist and costume designer Sam Spector was a major component to locking in his Traitors "character" — and he's thrilled how audiences have responded to his "genderf---" looks.

"Everyone goes nuts for what I'm going to wear. And the more outrageous and sort of crazy thing I wear, the more people like it," he says. "Everyone, not just queer people. I think it's because it's fun, and I make it fun, and we're all having a laugh with it. But I also hope that that translates in some small way to when [Traitors fans] see someone on the street who's wearing something gender-nonconforming, they will think, 'Oh, that's just like Alan on The Traitors.' And hopefully that will, in some way, make them more accepting to that. I really do think that's how you make change, just by example. And if the example happens to be fun, and fabulous, and a hoot, then all the better."