I kind of really love Sir Ian McKellen’s Q&A with Details Magazine. McKellen talks about everything from turning 70 to being chased by younger guys. But this is what really caught my eye:
Details: You didn’t come out until you were 49. Did having to put on an act make it easier to do so professionally?
Ian McKellen: That’s a very good point. I think that explains why a lot of actors of my generation are gay. Acting was a means to publicly display my emotions in a way that was illegal for me to do as a private person. Outside London where I lived, there was no gay pub or bar you could go to. And even if you found one, it was “Knock three times and ask for Louis.” It was horrible living this secret life. You could feel a little bit what it was like to be a Jew in central Europe during a certain period. It was horrible.
. . . Details: Have you ever wanted to get married?
Ian McKellen: It’s never crossed my mind that it’d ever be possible for me. That’s the scar that I and so many others bear—we believed ourselves to be second-rate citizens for so long, the idea of being able to say “This is my husband, these are my children” was not an option. I remember Tom Stoppard saying to me when I came out, “I feel so sorry for you, because you’ll never have children.” These days I would say, “Well, why not, Tom?” But 20 years ago I accepted his judgment.
And you know what? Every day we LGBT people are forced to develop less and less scar tissue.
Read the entire Q&A here.
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