Interview With Sir Ian McKellen (page 6)
by Michael Jensen, September 27, 2006
Page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 - Next
AE: Well, there are gay blogs that do it quite well. Funny that you should mention the internet, as it involves my next question. It seems it can be both a great way to spread news, but it's also a great way to spread misinformation. There are two websites — ContactMusic and Starpulse — that take nuggets from statements people have made and then spin them into ridiculous statements. They've done that to you, once claiming you were upset there wasn't a love scene between you and Professor Xavier.
IM: I said that myself.
AE: So that's true?
IM: Irony is a difficult thing to put into print.
AE: They played it straight. There was no irony on their part.
IM: He said smilingly. He said with a wink. He said, grinning. They don't always pick that up. The other day I was doing a show in L.A., and I announced that when I was doing Richard III in the mid-'80s in Georgia, the governor wanted to make it Ian McKellen Day in Atlanta, and he was told by his staff that unfortunately the day in question had already been reserved as Martin Luther King Day, which he didn't realize. So in compensation he made me a lieutenant colonel in the gubernatorial forces. And I said, consequently you're looking at the only openly gay soldier in the United States.
This was printed as having happened this year when I was publicizing The DaVinci Code and actually naming the current governor of Georgia! You can't trust what you read in the papers. They so often get it wrong. But that's life. Gossip is a part of our life. Getting it wrong. Exaggerating. Have you heard? Let me tell you this. Life is about misinformation. But it is a pity that newspapers, who ought to be trying to pick out the truth from the lies, aren't doing it more efficiently. But they're only human.
I don't suppose there is a group within society who doesn't have complaints about the unfairness and inadequacy of the media. We have to keep fighting. I think GLAAD is a very good organization, and their attitude of constantly monitoring the press is very important. I wish we had something similar in England, especially in regard to local newspapers and local news. Perhaps I ought to be more upset than I am.
AE: It gets hard being constantly upset. Trust me, after six years of the Bush administration, I'm getting tired of it.
IM: You have to be alert to it and try to change things. For every voice that is raised against gay people for whatever reason — spreading lies, trying to do us down, misrepresenting us — the louder they shout, the more successful it means we are being. In many parts of the world, it's the last throes of homophobia. Things change and get better. Do they? Maybe I'm just getting [to be] an eternal optimist, I don't know. I think a more positive approach, when you look around and see these anti-gay marriage laws being passed and suggestions that your actual Constitution should be changed to disadvantage gay people, is to understand the injustice about it. But to then do something about it, and that means perhaps changing the way you vote, perhaps getting involved in politics itself in some way.
AE: Your friendship with Armistead Maupin is well known. The movie adaptation of his book The Night Listener recently came out in the United States. A film critic by the name of Jeffrey Wells had this to say about the movie: "I haven't read any reviews that have brought this up, so I guess I'll have to: a 50ish gay man developing a fondness for a 14 year-old boy over the phone — hello? — feels icky." What's your response to something like that?
IM: No. It was a middle-aged writer astounded by the literary accomplishments of a young person. It was established very early on between him and the so-called Tony that Tony was as straight as possible, and they had a very mature relationship. Of course, he [Maupin] was talking to a middle-aged woman. He didn't realize it. No, no, no. You might as well say if Armistead had been talking to Teresa Johnson that his motives were suspect. You know, older people can talk to younger people without sex coming into it. They were both writers. That was the point. And Armistead was marveling at the facility of such a young person to express his feelings and experiences in such an alive way. It turned out he was right to be amazed by it. It was a lie. It was a middle-aged woman. It's the age, not the gender, which was important.
AE: Any word on Magneto, the prequel?
IM: Well, I keep saying there is going to be one, and the more I say it, perhaps the more people will believe it's a good thing to put on.
AE: Anything on The Hobbit?
IM: No, no. The same there. I'd very much like Peter Jackson to consider it. I've put it to him a number of times. I think understandably his ambitions might lie elsewhere.
Page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 - Next
