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Gays and monsters >> Sir Ian McKellen brings James Whale to life and gets an Oscar nod by MATTHEW HAYS
James Whale, the British director behind such feature films as The Bride of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man, was not a sad figure, McKellen asserts. "No, I think absolutely the contrary," he says with a British drawl. "He'd managed to make the journey from the provinces to London; he survived the First World War as an officer and a prisoner of war camp--then he emigrated to California. These were no small feats. And to have created those movies and to have been so carefree about who knew he was gay--he had a good life. And that's what he said in his suicide note: 'I've had a wonderful life.'" Kindred spirits In Gods and Monsters, McKellen plays Whale as he's recovering from a severe stroke; Lynn Redgrave, who's also up for an Oscar, dotes as his Eastern European maid; Brendan Fraser plays the straight hunky gardener who befriends Whale. McKellen said he felt a kinship with Whale from the start--they're both actor/directors who come from northern England. And then there's the added cache concerning the pair's place in the queer history books. (McKellen admits Whale's sexual orientation was one of the reasons he took the role.) After coming out in the early '90s, McKellen became a sort of thespian spokesperson for honesty in the profession; an actor's life--particularly someone aspiring to make it in film--remains one of the last, most tightly sealed closets. Writing an op-ed piece in The Advocate in 1996, McKellen urged other screen actors to consider coming out and being honest about who and what they are. Does it surprise McKellen that so many actors insist on staying in the closet, despite the numerous breakthroughs that have been made in the fight for recognition of gay rights? "No. Homophobia is still rampant. Just as our senior politicians are nervous and sports stars find they can't talk about it, and schoolteachers, and so on. Each of us knows what the pressures are, particularly those of my generation. As recently as the '80s, there were parts of Britain where gay sex was illegal. The pressure this has put on people is amazing. "When I told my 82-year-old stepmother, she said, 'Oh, thank god, I thought you were going to tell me something truly dreadful.' But that's the main reason for people of my generation not coming out, is that they're worried about an aging parent, bless their hearts. Ultimately, you can't lecture people about this. You simply have to set an example and say, 'You know, the sun's shining where I am.'" The accidental activist As well as continuing his acting career (he played a Nazi war criminal in Bryan Singer's Apt Pupil, also released last year), McKellen has become an inadvertent activist, challenging Britain's Labour government to act on its promise of full equality for gays and lesbians. "They're honour-bound now to repeal anti-gay laws. Especially the one that put Oscar Wilde in prison, which still stands to this day. I served on the committee to have a statue of Wilde placed right in the centre of London, right across from a gay club, though no one else on the committee realized the significance of that placement." McKellen says that once the barrage of attention that followed his coming out occurred, delving into politics became inevitable. "I've received so many letters from people who've said it's really helped to have me out there as an example to them and others. We're all linked, and once you start linking with people you're suddenly in politics. Then you start worrying about what the government's up to." If McKellen wins the best-actor Oscar on March 21, he will make history once more, being the first openly gay actor to win in that category. And while McKellen does take some pleasure in the Oscar nod for his turn as Whale, he says the main reason for delighting in "his favourite role" is the overall finished feature. "I've really been seduced by the film. Just that I'm part of it is really overwhelming." Gods and Monsters opens Friday, March 5
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It's a mere two minutes into my conversation with Sir Ian McKellen, perhaps the greatest British actor of his generation, and he's already correcting me on my interpretation of his latest character's life.