Alan Cumming found it 'really healing' to reprise Nightcrawler role

Alan Cumming found it “really healing” to reprise his role as Nightcrawler in Avengers: Doomsday.

The 60-year-old actor and Traitors presenter had a terrible time when he previously took on the role for Bryan Singer’s 2003 movie X2 and Alan was thrilled to get the chance to play the character again and leave with happy memories of set.

He told PEOPLE: “It was amazing. It was actually really... in a sort of ooey, gooey way, it was really healing and really nice to go back to something that it was a terrible experience when I did it the first time. A great film, great film. I love the film.

"It was actually really great to go back. And especially, I'm 60 years old. I did not think I would be doing stunts, playing a superhero in my 60s. So that was great. And everyone was really nice. And I got it done really quickly because I couldn't go, because of The Traitors, when most of my scenes were being shot."

Alan added that he was "miserable" making X2, for an "awful for a variety of reasons that I have talked about at length”.

He previously told Kate Thornton on the White Wine Question Time podcast: "We were really in a very bad working situation.

"It was dangerous, it was abusive, and the studio didn't care. All the actors said something and they still just went: 'Oh, never mind. It's only gonna be a few more weeks, don't worry. And it's gonna make a lot of money.'

"They actually said that and also 'you're under contract'. And I said: 'I don't want to feel dirty about going to work'. I would cry, it was just tragic.

"I would be in that awful blue makeup. I put on loads of weight during that because I would just eat, I was exhausted. My boyfriend at the time would make all these crazy big meals.

"I would go home, eat a ton, have a couple glasses of wine, burst into tears and go to sleep. And then go and be a miserable blue mutant [the next day]."

Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellen, Kelsey Grammer, James Marsden and Rebecca Romijn will also reprise their X-Men roles for the movie, while core MCU actors Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Sebastian Stan, Paul Rudd, Tom Hiddleston, Letitia Wright and Winston Duke will star.