UK thespian Sir Ian McKellen urged closeted LGBTQ+ actors to come out of the closet and not be ashamed of their sexual identity.
The 85-year-old Lord of the Rings actor publicly came out as gay in a BBC radio interview in 1988 and has since been a global advocate for LGBTQ+ social movements.
Speaking with The Times of London, McKellen talked about the positive experience of gay individuals embracing their sexual authenticity.
“I have never met anybody who came out who regretted it,” said McKellen.
He continued:
“I feel sorry for any famous person who feels they can’t come out. Being in the closet is silly—there’s no need for it."
"Don’t listen to your advisers, listen to your heart. Listen to your gay friends who know better. Come out. Get into the sunshine.”
Users shared their thoughts on his wisdom.
In a 2023 interview with Variety, McKellen touched on how coming out as gay in 1988—a declaration he made to protest against Margaret Thatcher's government support of British laws that prohibited the “promotion of homosexuality” by local authorities—changed his approach to acting.
“Almost overnight, everything in my life changed for the better," he recalled, adding, "My relationships with people and my whole attitude toward acting changed."
As an actor, before embracing his gay identity, McKellen preferred the method of transforming into characters.
After coming out at age 48, the five-time Olivier Award winner used his personal experiences to help him connect to the roles he was portraying on the stage.
Said McKellen:
“The kind of acting that I had been good at was all about disguise—adopting funny voices and odd walks."
“It was about lying to the world. I was no longer in the situation where I was running along beside the character explaining it to the audience. I just became the character.”
He added:
“People who are not gay just simply don’t know how it damages you to be lying about what you are and ashamed of yourself."
"I was brought up at a time when it was illegal for me to have sex with a man. And that was not that long ago.”
In McKellen's latest period film, The Critic, he played a harsh film critic in 1934 London who devises a deviant plot to get his job back after being fired following his arrest for homosexuality.
The film's director, Anand Tucker, discussed McKellen's personal connection to the role in an interview with Variety.
“I don’t subscribe to the idea that you need to be gay to play a gay part,” explained Tucker.
He continued:
“But in Ian’s case, there’s something about his own lived experience that allowed him to bring a kind of urgent truth to the role."
"He had a deep understanding of what it means to be an outsider who is shunned for the truth of who they are.”
When McKellen played the title character for the 1969 production of Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II, homosexuality was illegal in Scotland and remained so until 1980. The play was presented at a Church of Scotland-owned property, which a local councillor objected to.
However, McKellen recalled how the police declared the production was “fit for consumption," and the play subsequently sold out "thanks to all the publicity."
“We were very aware that homosexuality was illegal in Scotland,” McKellen said of the time, adding:
“We also had a sense it was our play, although it wasn’t billed or directed as overly gay propaganda.”
McKellen was recently involved in a new Royal Shakespear Company (RSC) production of Edward II at Stratford-upon-Avon, directed by Daniel Raggett.
Instead of making a stage appearance, however, McKellen passed the mantle by mentoring a fellow gay actor, RSC’s co-artistic director Daniel Evans, in preparation to portray the titular character McKellen himself took on so many years ago.
The new production comes at a time when U.S. lawmakers in at least nine states are seeking to undermine same-sex marriages, including with a measure urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges.. The 2015 landmark ruling granted same-sex couples the right to marry nationwide.
Lawmakers in four additional states have introduced bills that, while they don't refer to Obergefell v. Hodges, would create the “covenant marriage” category exclusively meant for one man and one woman if signed into law.
Social media users were apprehensive about adopting McKellen's empowering call to arms.
“We always have to be alert,” McKellen said. He also hopes that the ubiquity of same-sex unions in the UK normalizes how people perceive LGBTQ+ love.
“In this country, I hope because of gay marriage, more people are less frightened and more accepting of gay people. Elsewhere, the picture is not so good," he added.
Edward II is playing at the Swan Theatre and runs through April 5.
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