Sir Ian McKellen has said his work improved after he came out as gay, as it made ‘everything better’.
The actor, 81, revealed his sexuality on BBC radio in 1988.
Speaking on ITV’s The Jonathan Ross Show, the Lord of the Rings star said he was no longer ‘hiding’ after coming out and ‘made up for lost time’ as he had ‘never stopped talking about it since’.
Sir Ian shared: ‘It changes your life utterly. I discovered myself.
‘And everything was better. My relationships with my family, with friends, with strangers, and my work got better as I wasn’t hiding anymore.’
Sir Ian explained that before he came out, his acting had ‘really been about disguise’ but after he made his sexuality public his acting became ‘about telling the truth, which was much more interesting’.
Since 1988, Sir Ian has become a household name by starring as the wizard Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit films, as well as Magneto in the first four X-men films.
He has also continued to attract critical acclaim, being nominated for an Oscar for playing Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as well as for his role as Frankenstein director James Whale in Gods and Monsters.
The popular actor also discussed the ‘dilemma’ he faced around coming out when he was younger because at the stage, he ‘could have risked being prosecuted’.
Sir Ian was nearly 50 when he revealed his sexuality to the wider public just over 30 years ago, having been open with his theatre colleagues far earlier in his career.
The actor and Stonewall co-founder also talked about why he had changed his mind when it came to writing an autobiography.
Having put the requisite amount of time aside to write it – six to nine months – he said he was put off by the list of chat shows he then ‘would be expected to appear on, all over the world’ to promote it.
‘That would take a year of my life, longer than to write the book,’ he said.
‘I said I don’t have enough time. So I gave them the money back.’
He also admitted it had been ‘an awful lot of money which was basically the attraction’.
Sir Ian also ‘rather went off the idea’ because he wanted to start the book with his parents and examine why they decided to have him just before World War II, but it was ‘too late to ask them and I can’t quite imagine’.
He added: ‘I got rather teary thinking about them as young people and wishing I’d known more about them.’
The Jonathan Ross Show airs on Saturday on ITV.
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