The star, who was honoured for services to film, theatre and the arts and for his work as a gay rights campaigner, donned a kilt made of the Hunting Cumming pattern for the Royal occasion, along with matching jacket and waistcoat.
Aberfeldy-born Cumming said he was pleased to be honoured for his activism in America, where he now lives.
“That for me is the most important thing. I have a voice because of my work. I’m loud and I speak my mind,” he said.
He added: “I feel it’s a lucky position to be in -- that people want you to speak out for something you want to say anyway.
“My work has enabled me to do something with my opinions for good.”
Cumming, whose short peroxide hair was spiked up, completed his look with thick burgundy socks and heavy duty black boots.
He opted to follow the true Scots’ tradition for his date at the Palace and admitted: “Yes, I have no underpants on.”
Cumming’s wide-ranging career includes blockbuster movies such as 2003’s X2: X-Men United and the Spy Kids trilogy, as well as TV appearances in Sex And The City, Frasier and Third Rock From The Sun.
On collecting his award in the Palace ballroom, he said: “It was good. It was kind of funny. It’s really nice to meet all the different people and see what they’ve got (their awards) for.
“(The Princess Royal) was lovely... she asked me if I was getting enough work. I love that.
“I said I had just come back from Australia so if I fainted to not be alarmed.
“She thought that was hilarious.”
He was joined by husband Grant Shaffer, mother Mary and brother Tom.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article