The 76-year-old actor says that 'it's not only black people who've been disregarded by the film industry, it used to be women' and 'gay people.'
- Jan 26, 2016
AceShowbiz - One more actor has commented on the controversy over the lack of diversity at the Oscars. Veteran actor Ian McKellen agreed that the Oscars had a serious diversity problem as it failed to put any actor of color in its nominations for the second year in a row. The "Mr. Holmes" actor pointed out that black actors were not the only ones being disregarded, but gay actors too.
The 76-year-old actor, who is openly gay, said that gay people and women were also getting left out. "It's not only black people who've been disregarded by the film industry, it used to be women, it's certainly gay people to this day," he told Sky News. "And these are all legitimate complaints, and the Oscars are the focus of those complaints at the moment."
"No openly gay man has ever won the Oscar, I wonder if that is prejudice or chance," McKellen said, noting that straight actors like Tom Hanks, Sean Penn and Philip Seymour Hoffman had won the award for portraying gay characters. "How clever, how clever. What about giving me one for playing a straight man?" McKellen added.
The actor stated that he sympathised with people who had felt under-represented in the industry. "I think you have to live in Hollywood, where the Oscars mean so much more than they do elsewhere, to understand why people's feelings are running so high," he pointed out. "And the fact that black people feel under-represented in studio movies and big movies, well, it's what women thought for a long time, it's what gay people like myself still think."
For each of his nominations, the actor revealed that he had already prepared speeches. He said that he would begin his speech with "I'm proud to be the first openly gay man to win the Oscar. I've had to put it back in my pocket twice."
