Alan Cumming has confessed he is relieved not to be asked to appear in the new X-Men movie as he wasn't a fan of all the make-up and stunts his role involved.

The Scottish actor played Nightcrawler in X2, a vampiric mutant with blue skin, pointy ears and a tail, who could teleport around in puffs of smoke.

Alan revealed he hadn't been asked to reprise his role in new movie X-Men: Days Of Future Past, which brings together the past generation of X-Men, including Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, and the younger versions of the mutants from the reboot X-Men: First Class.

Alan confessed: "I really loved that film that I was in, don't get me wrong, I thought it was a great film, but it wasn't my favourite experience of my life.

"There was a time when it was maybe going to happen, but I wasn't available so it didn't happen.

"But I'm not dying to get back into all that make-up and be dangling from wires and having a tail."

However, The Good Wife star didn't rule out ever playing Nightcrawler again.

Alan added: "If they did ask me, I would give it a go."