Ian McKellan Talks Diversity

Actor Ian McKellan recently spoke to a couple of publications about the criticism facing the Academy Awards over their lack of diversity. Page Six reprints his remarks as follows:

“As a representative of the industry they’re in, it’s receiving complaints which I fully sympathize with. 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. And these are all legitimate complaints and the Oscars are the focus of those complaints, of course...No openly gay man has ever won the Oscar; I wonder if that is prejudice or chance."

On Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sean Penn winning best actor Oscars for playing gay men:

“How clever, how clever. What about giving me one for playing a straight man?” he asked.

McKellan has been nominated twice for Academy Awards; on writing a speech in case he won:

“My speech has been in two jackets … ‘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.”