Alan Cumming of The Good Wife was on NPR (National Public Radio) to talk about his acting career, hows he loves the part of Eli Gould, and what’s next.

If you’ve never had the chance to listen to Alan Cumming on a talk show, you really don’t want to miss this. You get a chance to hear his wonderful Irish sense of humor.

CUMMING: Thanks, Neal. Nice to talk to you.

CONAN: And you have a red tie on.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER] [END SOUNDBITE)

CUMMING: I’m completely naked, actually.

CONAN: Oh, that’s charming. When do you get to play the real classic Scottish parts, you know, like Macbeth or James Bond?

CUMMING: Well, finally enough, I’m going to play Macbeth next summer in the gap between “The Good Wife” – in the summer holidays from “The Good Wife,” with the National Theatre of Scotland, so it doesn’t get much more Scottish.

CONAN: No, it doesn’t. And if, by time, James Bond though?

CUMMING: I think Daniel Craig is safe in his job for now.

CONAN: OK. I wanted to ask you, your part was introduced as a – in the first season of “The Good Wife” – as a campaign manager and not intended to last very long.

CUMMING: No, I came on to do – well, I mean, they said one, maybe a couple more episodes and then he just kind of stayed. He just sort of fitted, I suppose.

CONAN: Well, he took off because, well, it’s a good part, it’s well written and you’re playing it very, very well.

CUMMING: Thank you very much. I really enjoy it. I mean, it’s a very – it’s funny, like, sometimes when, you know, you play someone who’s very, very different to yourself and a role that you don’t really know and actually understand, it’s sort of daunting. But actually, I began – I thought of Eli just as I’ve thought of many other characters I’ve played that I don’t know anything about. But they tend, mostly, to be superheroes or animals or, you know, kind of mythical characters. So I put him in that same gallery.

You can read the rest of the transcript or listen(which is really much better) here on NPR.

Do you enjoy the Eli Gould character? Do you want to see more of him?