Sir Ian McKellen Reflects on Being Gay, Coming Out in the '80s, and His New Movie
Gay actor Sir Ian McKellen, at age 85, is well situated to look back and comment on how queer people have been treated — and acknowledge his own role in promoting LGBTQ+ equality.
That's exactly what the revered actor of stage and screen did in a recent interview with HuffPostUK, tying history's lessons to his new film "The Critic," which is set in 1937, and in which McKellen plays a theater critic named Jimmy Erskine, whose reviews are sharply written, but just as sharply worded.
With new ownership, the newspaper for which Erskine has long worked demands a kinder, gentler critic, and if Erskine cannot oblige he will lose his privileged position in London's social milieu. But when the closeted gay Erskine is arrested on a vice charge, not even a pivot to softer language and friendly reviews can save him; instead, he will have to rely on some old-fashioned pressure tactics, including extortion and blackmail.
McKellen linked his character's brutal stratagems to the viciously anti-gay laws of the time, telling HuffPost, "when he thinks he needs to defend himself, to hold onto the job that he loves so much, he does it in a bullying fashion, which reflects the spirit with which the laws of the land have been bullying him."
By contrast, the level of equality and acceptance queer people enjoy today seems remarkable.
"When I visited schools, talking about what it used to be like when I was at school, it's important that people understand how much things have improved and how much more understanding and friendly we are to each other than the law used to allow us to be," McKellen recalled to HuffPost.
But that progress is halting, and it's fragile.
"When we were fighting to get the laws changed in this country, a lot of the opposition to change came from people who simply didn't believe that there was a problem," McKellen related, using as examples improbable claims like "'I don't know any queers', 'I don't want my son to grow up a Nancy boy', 'he will be if he meets other queers'... "
Exclaimed the actor, "[N]o he won't! That's not how it works. The idea that you could talk someone into being gay when they didn't already have that in their nature all seemed to me stupid."
And yet, that's a pretext the anti-LGBTQ+ right leans upon heavily, with claims that gay people are "grooming" children simply by existing and having that existence acknowledged. Similar claims fly about transgender people.
"You hear now, 'Well, I don't know any trans people, they don't really exist, it's not really a problem,'" McKellen offered, before adding that for queer people — trans people in particular — such queerphobic rhetoric is "a terrible problem, and they need as much help as possible."
"The nature of that help can be debated," McKellen continued, "but it does remind me that when society disregards a minority — and, worse than that, imposes laws and restrictions on their behavior, which is really unfair — then that's when society is going off the rails, and we have to attend to it."
McKellen attended to the problem in his own way, by coming out publicly in 1988 — long before it was generally accepted, and during the height of the AIDS crisis.
The "Lord of the Rings" star humbly discounts his contributions to the gains queer people have made in recent decades, though he does acknowledge that queer people took inspiration from his courageous example.
McKellen said he is "aware, because people tell me, that it was helpful to them in their own journey to read about, and be aware of, people like me and Michael Cashman and Stephen Fry, and so many others."
The "X-Men" actor went on to add, "One of the wonderful things about coming out was not just that one's life changes totally for the better — because you're being honest, at last, with yourself and with other people — but that you make connections with other people who have been through the same problems as you have yourself."
"And not just in this country — far away. So, to bear witness just by saying that you're gay can be a wonderful help to people."
Thank you, Sir Ian, for doing just that!
Watch a trailer for "The Critic" below.