A traveller’s story: Actor Alan Cummings crossing the Atlantic
“I went to Cunard Queen Mary 2 For the first time in 2011. A lot of strange things were going on in my family at the time: my father had recently died and before that he told me that I was not his biological son. A few years ago, my mother’s friend also passed away. They loved doing it SailingSo I thought it would be good for her and me to do it together and process everything that’s going on in our lives. I had just made a film Los AngelesAnd when I finish a movie I like to leave the next day to do something different, so I fly to meet my mother in Southampton. Crossing the Atlantic was a profound experience as well as a unique experience jet-lag wise; The time zone changed practically every day. Naturally, I woke up at four o’clock one morning and decided to walk around the ship. There seemed to be no one else on the ship. I walked into the ballroom and heard nothing but the flickering of the chandelier. All the cutlery and glasses shook gently as the ship moved. I went down to the middle of the staff where they bring in the trucks and all that. There was a corridor surrounded by windows where during the day people played games like scrabble while looking out at the sea. I found an abandoned, half-finished jigsaw puzzle, and the view outside was at such an angle that the water on the horizon line looked like it was halfway up the window, as if we were underwater. I just thought it was the best way to capture how I was feeling at that moment. As I was walking around, the sun came up, but I didn’t see anyone the whole time. I went back to bed feeling like I had this secret, magical adventure. To think that at first I was afraid of everything – seven days on a boat where I could not get off. But at the end of it, I didn’t like it. pass the time on the shipIt was the most fun kind of cleaning, looking out over the ocean.” – Alan Cummings, as told to Charlie Hobbs
Alan Cummings is hosting the third season TraitorPremiering January 9 on Peacock.
This article appeared in the January/February 2025 issue Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here.