Ian McKellen reveals the surprising impact coming out in his late 40s had on his career

Almost overnight everything in my life changed for the better — my relationships with people and my whole attitude toward acting changed.

The kind of acting that I had been good at was all about disguise — adopting funny voices and odd walks. It was about lying to the world. I was no longer in the situation where I was running along beside the character explaining it to the audience. I just became the character.

People who are not gay just simply don’t know how it damages you to be lying about what you are and ashamed of yourself. I was brought up at a time when it was illegal for me to have sex with a man. And that was not that long ago.

I’ve never been out of work, but I’m aware that any minute now something could happen to me which could prevent me from ever working again. But while the knees hold up and the memory remains intact, why shouldn’t I carry on? I really feel I’m quite good at this acting thing now.

Ian McKellen, 84, talking to Variety about how quickly his life improved upon coming out of the closet in 1988 and why he has no plans to retire from acting.