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Press Release:?15th November 2017Sir IAN McKELLENIan McKellen opened by dispelling the fake news that he had died last week and also that he was is the richest actor in the world with a line of clothing and perfumes. ‘The best thing I did when I became an undergraduate was to become a life member. In 1958 it cost ?8 but I never came back as I was too busy acting.’ Ian said in his spare time he speaks to village schools and one boy came crying to him as he likes musical theatre and everyone makes fun of him. Ian said ‘no one is born with prejudice, they learn all of that. No baby is born with anything other than love. What a contrast that is to when I first came out when I was 49. At school there could be no conversation about it as you could convert people in terms of sexuality.’ He says ‘I was brought up to believe I was queer. It was illegal for two men to have sex. I broke the law when I was 28 years old. It’s no fun reminding yourself that what you’re doing could be punished by prison. I had two friends in prison for making love.’ He says even though we have established legal equality we need to change social equality. It’s easy to get a law changed. You only have to make a speech once to an accomplished audience and case passed. Ian talked about a gay man, Michael who was killed by a woman just because she didn’t like his sexuality. He asks where did she learn this? He adds, ‘just as we get to section 28, Putin arrives. They’ve adopted section 28 with the same wording. It is illegal to speak positively about sexuality to under 18s. The poor old gay activists are hiding in corners. They’re branded as traitors for sticking up for themselves.’ He adds that in India they didn’t have any anti-gay laws until the British arrived and they still have that law. ‘It’s not rational.’ He talked about the boy Finn who had been a little girl 6 months before, as well as a child with a gay father and lesbian mother. ‘The one label that matters is your name. The only reason I call myself gay is because for years people called me queer. There’s this LGBTQI, where does it all go? Let’s just drop it all and be who we are.’ Charles Connor: We have had Dustin Jane Black here last Saturday. He has had a different approach towards LGBTQ rights. How does his approach compare with yours?Ian McKellen: You do what you can with gay rights. Some of it is useful, some of it is not. I was once accused of being a ‘straight man with gay clothing’. A gay man who is out doesn’t want to proselytise homosexuality. The difference between him and a gay man who doesn’t come out is confidence. You need to enjoy the human race. Everyone I know, who has come out, has enjoyed their life far : Tell us a bit about your experience in acting.IMcK: Theatre is the real test for an actor. Producing a film is absolutely : Do you find it easier to play a character like yourself?IMcK: I don’t think about these things. It’s not something I ponder. I acted to get away from myself, as a kid. I was quite good at it. I could copy people. People liked it. They couldn’t like Ian, because they didn’t know Ian. They didn’t know I was in love with their son. I found my way to get through, in a disguised way. Lots of professional actors are gay and lesbian, for this reason.It is very difficult to act like someone your age because they are so similar to you, yet they are not you. I had to play a heterosexual sex scene, but I didn’t know how to do it. I had to ask a friend to draw out sex scenes for me on the back of an envelope.You’re taught in acting that you need to know the background of the person you’re acting before you act. Shakespeare didn’t understand what ‘character’ meant. For Shakespeare, there were only ‘parts’. Only say to yourself four words: ‘Once. Upon. A. Time.’ That’s enough. Shakespeare has done all the work. Unfortunately, actors and directors have gotten in the way.Audience Question (AQ): When you saw the initial manner Kevin Spacey came out, what was your initial reaction?IMcK: I don’t want to talk too much about this, but I would just say that redemption may be possible. Trying to have underage sex, paedophilia, won’t do. The allegations are very disturbing. I had a dear friend who was falsely accused – he has had two miserable years. How he has survived, I don’t know.AQ: Going back to your discussion about not playing the character but playing the part, is there any character you would enjoy playing?IMcK: Not really. Don’t you wish you had played Dumbledorf? NO I DON’T. I am old. I am a very old man – four scores and upward.AQ: The recent Nobel Chemistry Prize Laurate spoke fondly of you when you were at school together. Sir Harry Proto. Do you think today’s identity politics helps or hinders us getting to individualism, and the removal of labels?IMcK: We are slowly heading to a place of tolerance and acceptance. Harry Proto impressed his Director of Studies and managed to get a place at Cambridge. I arrived for my interview and was asked to do a Henry V act. I was given an exhibition and my Director of Studies said it was the best interview he has ever conducted. Harry Proto said, ‘the only way he got into Cambridge was to do what he always likes doing, showing off on a chair!’ AQ: What was the experience of gay actors when you were at Cambridge?IMcK: It was a wretched place for a misfit. You had to be in by 22:00. And you had to wear a gown!I liked to buildings, I liked staying up late. The first thing I had on my plate in College Hall was venison. Venison!AQ: Would you get involved with Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series?IMcK: (mimics a heart attack) I was not the first Gandolf – BBC 4 did a Lord of the Rings.AQ: Going back to King Lear, did your new approach to Lear – was it less exhausting?IMcK: It was. It is hard work and you are using lots of inner passion. There’s lots to cope with.AQ: My younger brother is gay, and he hasn’t had the confidence to come out to our parents because they are conservative. What advice can you give to him for a confidence booster?IMcK: Well, I can’t really give advice to someone who I don’t know. Go to your sibling. Your parents have been through enormous changes. There is only one advantage to being gay than not being gay – and that is, you have to come out. When you tell your parents, and they accept you, that is The one regret I had was not to tell my parents. My mother died when I was 12, my father died when I was 24. I didn’t complete the business of being my parent’s son. I didn’t tell them what they had created.AQ: During my A Levels, I had a poster of you saying, ‘You Shall Not Pass’. Can you re-enact that scene?IMcK: You can’t afford it. YOU SHALL NOT BOUNCE!AQ: What is the single most important piece of advice you would give to a fresher at Cambridge?IMcK: People don’t get wiser because they get older. If you have a deathbed scene – you will say, ‘I wish I had.’ Don’t let that list get too long. Travel, sex, relationships, other people, more travel, learning languages, learning how to play the piano, getting angry.`I’ll leave you with a story. William Shakespeare wrote a play called ‘Sir Thomas More’. The scene takes place on the May Day riots.Sir Ian acted out the scene.--END-- ................
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