Alan Cumming has branded the practise of circumcision for religious reasons as “ridiculous” and compared it to female genital mutilation.

The Scottish actor made the comments in an interview with The Guardian, and recalled his own experience of living in America as an uncircumcised man.

“I never thought anything about my foreskin,” he said, “and then I came to America and I was having sex and people would just be gasping because they’d never seen a foreskin before.

“I was made to feel weird and freakish because I had an intact body.”

He continued: “It’s genital mutilation. And I think people say: ‘Oh, that’s hysterical.’ But we do it to girls and it’s called genital mutilation.”

Cumming said he believed the religious grounds for circumcision were “ridiculous”.

In something of a coincidence, Cumming once guest starred on the US TV series Sex in the City, which featured a now-infamous scene in which Sarah Jessica Parker‘s character Carrie is astonished to hear that one of her friends is dating an uncircumcised man.

The US has one of the highest circumcision rates in the world, with around 81 percent of adult males aged 14 to 59 having no foreskin.

In the same interview, Cumming also spoke about his podcast, sexuality, his prolific career, and his experiences with convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein.