Obi-Wan Kenobi Told Gandalf Not to Get Political

Ian McKellen is one of the most famous out LGBTQ+ actors on the planet. He came out when pretty much everyone in his career told him not to. He took his boyfriend to the Oscars when he was nominated, one of the few out queer actors to receive such an honour. Over the decades, his popularity has only increased as he’s earned awards, blockbuster roles, and collaborations with directors like Steven Soderbergh. Also, he has a spoken word monologue in one of the Scissor Sisters’ best songs! As you can imagine, a hell of a lot of people, well-meaning or otherwise, have told him not to get too political or, you know, too gay. When asked by The Guardian in a recent interview what was the worst piece of advice he’d ever received, he shared a story involving another stalwart of British acting: Alec Guinness.

While acting in the ground-breaking play Bent, about gay men imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, he was invited to dinner by the legendary Guinness. He “stupidly declined” but got the chance to hang out with him a decade later.

“He took me for an Italian lunch in Pimlico, where we chatted about this and that until he brought up the real reason for his invitation. He had heard about my work to establish Stonewall - a lobby group to present to the government and the world at large the case for treating UK lesbians and gays equally under the law with the rest of the population. He thought it somewhat unseemly for an actor to dabble in public or political affairs and advised me, sort of pleaded with me, to withdraw. Advice from an older generation, which I didn’t follow.”

Oh, Obi-Wan.

Look, I get his stance, as dunderheaded as it was. It was the ’80s, the AIDS epidemic was being poorly handled by the government, and Section 28 had essentially criminalized queerness for British teachers. I get being afraid of that. I also get Guinness thinking that actors should maintain some kind of mystique and avoid public drama, as untenable as that stance is. But we’re all glad McKellen didn’t listen to him. The government was letting an entire community die and it was groups like Stonewall that fought for their rights.

This advice may also have come from a very familiar place for Guinness, who was rumoured to have been bisexual. Many of his friends and family members apparently knew about his orientation, and there were claims in one biography that he had once been arrested and fined for a homosexual act in a public toilet. A lot of closeted queer actors felt a ton of pressure to avoid even a hint of politics lest it open the floodgates and reveal everything. The British tabloids weren’t exactly BFFs with our community, after all.

It’s always nice to know that we have Gandalf/Magneto in our corner. Now, if only we could get him to stop being pals with Johnny Depp…