In comments to the BBC, actor Andrew Garfield explains comments he made about gay men, saying that they were “taken out of context.”

The 33-year-old Garfield currently plays Prior Walter, a gay man dying of AIDS, in the 25th anniversary production of Tony Kushner's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America at the National Theatre.

(Related: Andrew Garfield, Russell Tovey, Nathan Lane star in Angels in America revival.)

Speaking at a Q&A session, Garfield was asked how he prepared for the role.

“As far as I know, I am not a gay man,” Garfield answered. “Maybe I’ll have an awakening later in my life, which I’m sure will be wonderful and I’ll get to explore that part of the garden, but right now I’m secluded to my area, which is wonderful as well. I adore it, but a big concern was what right do I have to play this wonderful gay role?”

Garfield went on to say that he prepared for the role by watching RuPaul's Drag Race.

“I mean every single series of RuPaul's Drag Race. I mean every series,” Garfield said.

“My only time off during rehearsals – every Sunday I would have eight friends over and we would just watch Ru. This is my life outside of this play. I am a gay man right now, just without the physical act – that's all,” he added.

Some people criticized Garfield's comments and accused him of stereotyping gay men.

“That's of course not what I meant at all,” Garfield told the BBC's Newsbeat.

“That discussion was about this play and how deeply grateful I am that I get to work on something so profound.”

“It’s a love letter to the LGBTQ community. We were talking about, ‘How do you prepare for something so important and so big?’ and I was basically saying, ‘I dive in as fully as I possibly can.'”

“My only longing is to serve and to keep the world spinning forward for the LGBTQ community in whatever way I’m meant to. It’s important to a community that I feel so welcomed by.”

“The intention was to speak to that, speak to my desire to play this part to the best of my ability and to fully immerse myself in a culture that I adore,” Garfield added.