Actor Alan Cumming has called on President Barack Obama to back up his gay marriage endorsement with legislation.

Cumming, who married his partner Grant Shaffer in New York City on the fifth anniversary of their British civil partnership in January, told The Huffington Post that he would like to see more than “a nice message” from the president.

“I think it's great that we have a president that's spoken out and has support for gay marriage,” Cumming said. “It needs to start from the top and it needs to actually be legislation as well as just a nice message.”

“In this last election, I think it was really clear that, to everyone apart from the Republican party, that the country has changed, the world has changed, and there's certain things, like gay rights, that need to be addressed,” he added.

Cumming's support for Obama has been jagged – he's blasted the president for doing “diddly squat” on gay rights and called on LGBT people to stick by him.

The 47-year-old Cumming currently stars in the film Any Day Now.