Out British actor Ian McKellen has
suggested that James Bond be gay.
McKellen, 78, is best known for playing
Gandalf in the The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
trilogies and Magneto in the X-Men films. He came out in
1988.
In an interview with Variety
that touched on greater Hollywood LGBT representation, McKellen said
that 007 would make a perfect superhero.
“I wouldn’t say the films coming
out of the mainstream are quite as related to what’s going on in
the real world as I would like them to be,” McKellen
said. “One indication of that is LGBT people don’t really get
quite a big enough say. If you’re one of those initials yourself,
you do notice that actually these movies are not about me at all.”
“I do have an idea,” he continued.
“James Bond is a wimp! He’s a silly Englishman that wants his
martinis stirred," he remarked. “He changes his underwear,
like Superman, and he can save the world. [All the actors] play it
the same – he’s heroic all the way through. No, he’s not.”
“If you play James Bond as an
outwardly camp, silly gay man that no one took seriously and then he
turned out as many gay men are underneath their clothes – buff and
strong and as hetero as any hetero – we might have a more truthful
story than the one that has been told,” McKellen concluded.