Sir Ian McKellen: I, An Actor

“I’m one of those actors who went into acting in part because it was an escape from life,” he says, and describes growing up in a pious, non-conformist Christian Lancashire family. “There were areas of the real world I couldn’t quite cope with. I was a nervous child. A gay man at a time when it was illegal to be gay. So there was a wonderful freeing feeling at being able to indulge your emotions in a way you weren’t encouraged to in real life.” 

Profile in The Times.

Sorry, but isn't this old chestnut a bit like comics always saying they started telling jokes to avoid getting bullied at school?

He goes on to talk about never really being 'in' before he came out in 1988...

“I was just what I was,” he says. “I lived openly with my partners, went everywhere with them, went to award ceremonies with them. There’s never been much problem with being gay in the British theatre, so I was living a fairly easy life. I didn’t notice the Stonewall riots. I didn’t notice that there was a gay rights movement. I was never a part of it because I didn’t feel a need to be.” 

PS Sireena is in The Dresser on BBC2 tonight, queening it up as the titular Norman alongside noted heterosexual thespian, Anthony Hopkins.