Sir Ian McKellen on Being Happily Single and Fearing the Rollback of LGBTQ+ Rights

Sir Ian McKellen, a gay man who’s considered one of the greatest actors of his generation, recently gave a wide-ranging interview in which he said he’s not interested in a relationship at his age — and on another topic, that he’s worried about LGBTQ+ rights being rolled back.

McKellen, 84, is appearing in London in Ben Weatherill’s play Frank and Percy, about two older men who fall in love during their meetings in a park. It costars Roger Allam, who is straight, and is directed by Sean Mathias, who was once in a relationship with McKellen.

In a joint interview of McKellen and Allam, British magazine Attitude asked McKellen if there’s romance in his life. “No, I don’t think there is,” he replied. “But like my 91-year-old friend who came to see this play, you’d hope, wouldn’t you? I have crushes on people. I wouldn’t call it falling in love. But I don’t want them to move in, thank you very much. I’ve got it all sorted, thank you. And I’ve got these nice gay friends who live just through the wall — I can see them anytime I want. I’m not looking for a domestic partner. I wouldn’t want word to go around.”

Allam, 69, interjected, “There would be queues, darling!”

“Do you think so?” McKellen responded. “At my age — and actually at any age — you can get by without sex. A lot of people do.”

As to whether he stays in touch with former lovers, he said, “There haven’t been that many of them. I made the mistake of breaking up with one and not seeing him for 20 years. Ridiculous. I tried to make up for it.”

McKellen came out in 1988 in response to U.K. legislation that barred local governments and schools from “promoting homosexuality.” He has been a staunch activist ever since. The law was repealed in 2003.

When asked about the possibility of such legislation coming up again, he said, “If you’d asked me that six hours ago, I’d have said no. But I talked to [cofounder of LGBTQ+ rights group Stonewall] Michael Cashman, and he says things aren’t looking good. There are going to be restrictions on discussions about gender which you may or may not have, which is to disadvantage trans people. If they think they’re going to get votes by doing that, I think they’re sadly mistaken… I hope it’s too late now, that schools have reversed and follow the law and do not discriminate on the grounds of sexuality. That’s the law of the land. But I suppose that law could be tweaked, and that would be dreadful.”

But he added, “I think governments who are trying to put things in reverse will find it very difficult. I think there would be revolutions in the streets, frankly.”

On LGBTQ+ content in schools, McKellen mentioned that he was recently speaking at a school to an audience of 7- to 13-year-olds, after expecting he’d have an audience of older students. He asked the teacher if it would be OK to talk about being gay, and the teacher said it was no problem.

“Absolutely normal in that school,” McKellen recalled. “A boy came up to me and went, ‘You know my parents, David and Elton!’ If you’ve got Elton John’s son as a playmate, it’s not going to be a problem for you to know Elton lives with a man and not a woman!”

He said that at one time, a play like Frank and Percy wouldn’t have been produced or at least wouldn’t have been well received. Now “a perfectly straight audience is happy to take on the joy of watching two old guys make fools of themselves and fall in love,” he said. “They love it. Even 10 years ago, you couldn’t have expected that. The world’s moved on. Of course, I do think theatre audiences are probably the vanguard of social change.”