‘There’s no need for it’: Ian McKellen has a stern message for every closeted actor

Ian McKellen has offered an encouraging message to actors who haven’t yet come out of the closet, insisting that he hasn’t “met anybody who came out who regretted it.”

The beloved star shared his thoughts on closeted actors during a recent interview with The Times of London. “I feel sorry for any famous person who feels they can’t come out,” the X-Men actor — who publicly declared his sexual orientation in a 1988 radio interview — told the publication. “Being in the closet is silly, there’s no need for it,” he added. McKellen urged any closeted stars to not “listen to your advisers” but instead “listen to your heart.”

“Listen to your gay friends who know better,” he said. “Come out. Get into the sunshine.” Elsewhere in the interview, McKellen — who was recently in a relationship with Oscar Conlon-Morrey — addressed the lack of gay representation even beyond Hollywood, noting how there has been no gay prime minister in the U.K. and almost no openly gay Premier League soccer players. “I would imagine young footballers are probably, like actors, getting very bad advice from agents who are worried about their own incomes,” The Lord of The Rings star said. 

“But the first Premier League footballer to come out will become the most famous footballer in the world, with all the agencies begging for his name on their products.” The actor also noted that there has never been an openly gay best actor winner at the Academy Awards, though multiple stars — including Heath Ledger and Sean Penn — have won for playing gay characters. For those still fearful of coming out, McKellen recalled lovingly how, after he declared his sexuality, “everything in my life changed for the better.” 

McKellen went on to ruminate on the state of gay rights in his home country, saying that he hopes, “because of gay marriage, more people are less frightened and more accepting of gay people.” However, the actor acknowledged that “elsewhere, the picture is not so good.” McKellen isn’t the only U.K. star to address the state of closeted actors in Hollywood. Back in 2021, Kate Winslet — who starred opposite McKellen in Flushed Away — said she “can think of at least four actors [who are] absolutely hiding their sexuality.”

The actress went on to say that these actors “are terrified their sexuality will be revealed and that it will stand in the way of their being cast in straight roles,” describing the situation as “painful because they fear being found out.” Even McKellen himself has shared a similar sentiment, saying in a 2018 interview with Time Out that his 1998 film Gods and Monsters was the “beginning of Hollywood admitting that there were gay people knocking around, even though half of Hollywood is gay.”

While being encouraged by a Hollywood peer is one thing, for some actors, the public demands for them to address their sexuality have proven to do more harm than good. Heartstopper star Kit Connor and musicians Joshua Bassett, Shawn Mendes, and Khalid are among those who’ve been all but forced out of the closet as a result of fans’ rabid curiosity about their private lives, often delivered in a far more intrusive way than McKellen’s message. So, how about we leave it to Magneto himself, shall we?