Alan Cumming is talking politics as he chats during his drive up to Martha’s Vineyard in upstate New York.

The star of TV’s The Good Wife and movies such as X Men is set to perform his new cabaret show, Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs, which he’ll bring to the Edinburgh Festival.

But first the talk is of politics. When asked why he feels Britain chose to Brexit, the actor doesn’t mince his words.

“I was appalled when I heard the result,” he declares. “And I have three words to sum it up. Stupid. English. People.

“But you could see it coming. I did an interview for STV news a couple of years ago and I said there would be a referendum on the EU and Britain would vote to leave, but Scotland would want to stay.

“I also said we’d have another (Independence) referendum.

“Now, I hope that people will see the irony in that one of the major reasons the Yes vote didn’t win was people were scared we wouldn’t be allowed in the EU if we were independent.

“And now we’re not allowed to be in the EU because we’re part of Britain.”

Alan Cumming may have left Scotland for London in the late Eighties and nowadays he’s a New York-based American citizen (he signed up with Uncle Sam to be able to vote for Obama).

However, it seems the 51 year-old from Aberfeldy will surrender his Scottishness around the same time Nicola Sturgeon scrapes the tartan wallpaper off her bedroom wall.

“What is interesting here is people like you because you are Scottish,” he says of American life.

“The Americans just don’t talk about your Scottishness in a derogatory way as they do in London. And I love this. I love the fact I’m a product of the Scottish education system. I feel I represent Scotland in a way.”

Alan’s upcoming Edinburgh Festival cabaret show will see him perform the likes of Keane’s Somewhere Only We Go and Miley Cyrus’s The Climb.

But in a Scottish accent. “It was totally deliberate,” he says, in emphatic voice. “I’ve always felt it weird that when we sing pop songs we immediately use an American accent. Everybody in Britain does.

“Yet, it doesn’t really make sense. Take someone likes Adele, for example, who speaks amazingly and she’s such a giggly Cockney girl. Yet, when she sings she becomes this different person.”

His voice changes tone and he gushes; “I guess this is why love the Proclaimers. I’m so full of admiration for them and the fact their passion and their Scottishness is way up there.”

Alan Cumming was at one time confused by his own Scottishness.

“When I appeared in Taggart (in 1986 as a suspect) I remember finding it really hard to play a young Scottish boy because I’d just come out of drama school and had never really played any character in my own voice.

“It made me very conscious how important it is to hang onto a sense of self.”

Will he feel vulnerable in Edinburgh? “Oh, yes,” he admits. “You’re not playing a character, so people are coming to see you. And what you’re doing is saying ‘I’m a singer’. I’m not that comfortable with that.

“Yet, you have to do things that challenge you and scare you. What makes this show work I think, is that I’m prepared to be vulnerable.”

Alan Cumming has certainly rung the bell, in terms of dollar associations, with the likes of the X Men films and his two Smurf movies.

“I’ve just done a couple of movies, I’ve just finished a TV series, I just wondered what I would do next,” he says of his cabaret show.

“But I would say it’s not always about doing big movies next. Some of the blockbusters I’ve done I’ve absolutely hated them. I’ve had my worst time ever.”

He’s not lying. When he filled out his American citizen forms Cumming tackled the expected dull questions; ‘Have you ever killed anyone?’, that sort of thing. But when it came to the more surprising ‘Have you ever been a prostitute?’ the actor grinned and wrote; ‘Not really. But I’ve been in some films that have made me feel like one.’

“What I’ve learned is that it’s the experience of doing it that counts, not the end product. I really follow my gut.”

The young Alan Cumming took a little time to discover the true direction of his gastrointestinal tract. On leaving school he joined publisher DC Thomson in Dundee to work on Tops magazine where he interviewed bands and edited comic strips.

But he had known for some time he wanted to be on the other side of the showbiz fence and was accepted by Glasgow’s RSAMD.

Along the career path, Cumming appeared in STV soap Take The High Road as a murdering psychopath and Taggart, as a suspect.

He joined rep theatre, and on stage since has won an Oliver and a Tony in the West End and Broadway.

Alan has also written his very successful autobiography I’m Not My Father’s Son, in which he revealed how his dad virtually tortured he and his older brother.

“I talk about the book and my father in this new show,” says Cumming of the evening which is a mix of song and chat.

“I think it’s because the responses to it were so gratifying. Going into the book opened up a myriad of feelings of anxiety for me and I wondered if I had made a mistake.

“But it’s given others the courage to talk about their own problems with family. “

His soft voice betrays his emotion; “It’s one of the things I’ve done I’m most proud of.”

On a personal front, he’s now married to his long-term partner, Grant Shaffer.

But what of the future? Does he plan to come back to Scotland? His New York apartment went on the market recently (It’s yours for $2.2m if you’re thinking of a move).

“I put the house on the market because I bought another one around the corner,” he says, smiling. “But I have a flat in Edinburgh.” He muses; “I don’t know. I like living in New York but I like being able to come back.”

Work (and Alan Cumming) will continue to be delightfully unpredictable. But does he ever look back and wonder if he had stayed in Scotland?

The hinges on the doors of opportunity weren’t so well oiled back then, certainly not in the Eighties when he left drama school.

“I’ve been very luck with all these entres I’ve had,” he says, grinning. “But at the same time I’ve given it a right good go.”

Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs, The Hub, August 6-27.