Ian McKellen on Religious Bigotry, Out Actors, and His Epitaph

Ian McKellen, in New York to promote an AMC movie called The Prisoner, gave a typically eloquent and enlightened interview to the L.A. Times. Hopefully he's not thinking about leaving us anytime soon, but it's apparent mortality is on his mind.

Said the actor: "When I've been asked what should be on my gravestone...I've said: 'Here lies Gandalf. He came out.' Two big achievements."

Said McKellen about religion: "I increasingly see organized religion as actually my enemy. They treat me as their enemy. Not all Christians, of course. Not all Jews, not all Muslims. But the leaders. . . . Why should I take the judgment of a declared celibate about my sexual needs? He's basing his judgment on laws that would fit life in the Bronze Age. So if I'm lost to God, organized religion is to blame."

He also talks about actors who make a deal with the devil to stay in the closet.

"The conventional wisdom is that if you are gay, you cannot play the romantic straight lead in a movie. They'd rather have 'don't ask, don't tell.' The proposition from Mephistopheles as you sign the agreement that you will become a Hollywood star is that you will lie about yourself. That's selling your soul. This business may involve disguise, but it's about telling the truth. And I don't think a closeted actor in this day and age can act as well as an actor who is out."

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Ian McKellen: Please Don't Call Me 'Sir' or 'Dumbledore'

Said Ian McKellen at an appearance at the Television Critics Association for King Lear, which comes to PBS on March 25:

"It's a great honor when you're plucked out and given a medal. I know in the States, you're not as fond of medals as most democracies are....It just happens that this one involves a title. And at times, it warms the cockles of my heart because it puts me nominally in the company of people I grew up idolizing: Sir Lawrence and Sir John Gielgud, Sir Ralph Richardson, Sir Alec Guinness, all these people, Sir Michael Redgrave, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Dame Edith Evans. And suddenly, oh, it's Sir Ian McKellen. But my name remains Ian McKellen. And that's my professional name. I'm forever going around, as I did this morning, saying, 'Please don't call me Sir because that's not really my name.' ... They often say, "Hi, Dumbledore,' and I say, 'No, no, that's Mike Gambon. I play the real wizard — the best wizard.' Of course, there's a confusion because Ms. Rowling has announced that Dumbledore is gay, hasn't she? So maybe that's the confusion. Whether Gandalf was gay is another matter. His wife is never mentioned, and he's 7,000 years old. He must have had some experience with sex."

PBS plans to cut McKellen's full frontal nude scene from its broadcast. Of that, McKellen said:

"It doesn’t matter. Every night, when I take my clothes off, you know what I used to do? Pull in my stomach. That’s pathetic. I was playing an old man. I should have let it all hang out, and I couldn’t do that. You know, I’m in two minds about it and I think it’s perfectly all right. After all, there were some places — I think Singapore was one — where it was not allowed for me to take my clothes off completely. It was all right to have a blinding on the stage, someone’s eyes removed, but it was inappropriate to show a penis. Well, I think it’s a bit ridiculous myself."

AfterElton has more on goings-on at the TCA.

While he was in Singapore playing Lear in July 2007, he recorded a video for gays in Singapore in support of the repeal of that country's repressive laws against homosexuality. Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

Previously Repressed Singapore Tells Ian McKellen: Don't Get Naked [tr]
Ian McKellen Creates Video Message to Gays in Singapore [tr]

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Sir Ian McKellen visits hometown school to deliver message against bullying: "Golborne High in Wigan has signed up to gay equality charity Stonewall's new education champions scheme. The programme allows councils to work with the charity and each other to promote safe and inclusive learning environments for youngsters and establish practical methods of addressing homophobia in schools. Wigan council is one of five founder members of the scheme. Lord of the Rings star Sir Ian, who was brought up in Wigan and is an active gay rights campaigner, toured the school and viewed photography work of Year Nine students."

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Ian McKellen and Simon Callow Target Homophobic Scottish Bishop

Back in March, leading Scottish Bishop Joseph Devine, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Motherwell, launched an attack on gays and, more specifically, actor Ian McKellen, criticizing the motivation of the gay community for honoring Holocaust survivors, and remarking during a lecture on Christian faith in Glasgow that "[he] saw actor Ian McKellen being honoured for his work on behalf of homosexuals, when a century ago Oscar Wilde was locked up and put in jail."

At a recent speech to gay rights group Stonewall, McKellen fired back, saying, "From the pulpit, homophobia is preached by some arrogant religious leaders who think their beliefs are superior to our inborn and, some would say, God-given nature....'We neglect the gay lobby at our peril', he said. And when a mother asked him what he would do if his child said he had a mission to be gay, the Bishop of Motherwell replied, sympathising with the mother but not the child, 'I would try to handle it with a degree of compassion but would not tolerate it.'"

His criticism was joined by actor Simon Callow, who spoke out in a Sunday Times interview: "The bishop is in my view a profoundly ignorant and stupid man. If he finds it offensive that gay people want to celebrate those gay people who died in the Holocaust — which was a large number of people — he’s also profoundly un-Christian. But then all churches have thrived on prejudice, it’s a means of keeping people under their control. I think they are really, really shocked at how quickly the world has moved on. They are constantly evoking some kind of specious moral authority which they’ve taken on. Nobody has particularly asked their advice on matters moral. We are working them out for ourselves."

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