http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/theater/ian-mckellen-and-derek-jacobi-virgins-of-the-gay-pride-march.html
THEATERIan McKellen and
Derek Jacobi in a
Gay Pride March DebutBy DAVE ITZKOFF
JUNE 26, 2015
Ian McKellen, left, and Derek Jacobi, on the balcony of their Midtown hotel, will be grand marshals at
Sunday's Gay Pride March.When
Ian McKellen and
Derek Jacobi come sailing down Fifth Avenue in convertibles at the
Gay Pride March on Sunday, they will not only be
grand marshals at the annual event but also first-time attendees.
So on Thursday morning, these revered British actors, who appear together in the
PBS sitcom
“Vicious,” were wondering what awaited them beyond an afternoon of waving to fans and onlookers.
“I’m just a sponge for anything that might happen,” said Mr. Jacobi, the soft-spoken star of
“I, Claudius” and countless stage productions.
Mr. McKellen, the
“Lord of the Rings” and
“X-Men” star, whose utterances are either deeply serious or extremely arch, opted for the second. “You may be in for a very, very happy weekend,” he replied.
On a visit to the
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in the West Village, these two performers, who are both 76 and are gay, had come for a quick education on
New York’s Pride events and their significance to the city on a weekend following the
Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on same-sex marriage. (At this year’s 46th parade, Mr. Jacobi and Mr. McKellen share grand marshal duties with the artist
J. Christopher Neal and
Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, a Ugandan activist.)
Along the way, they revisited their personal histories and reflected on the progress they had seen in their often parallel lives.
Even if his and Mr. Jacobi’s principal goal in participating in the parade was simply to have “a lovely time,” Mr. McKellen said that their mere presence in it, as living links between a less progressive era and the present day, made a statement of its own.
“That’s what we’re doing by being here and waving,” he said. “We don’t have to be reading out a long list of demands.”
The two friends, who play a longtime gay couple on “Vicious,” first met as students at the
University of Cambridge in the 1950s, where they bonded over their interests in acting, their working-class backgrounds and their sexuality.
“We knew we were both gay,” Mr. Jacobi said, “but we didn’t call it gay.” Euphemisms like “camp” and “queer” were the norm, they explained, at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain.
Both men went on to illustrious stage and screen careers, to play
Richard III and
King Lear, and to receive knighthoods — “We’re pretty much the same person,” Mr. McKellen joked.
Unlike their industry forebears, who they said never acknowledged even to confidants that they were gay or bisexual, Mr. McKellen and Mr. Jacobi said actors of their generation could be open about their sexuality with friends and colleagues.
Yet Mr. McKellen did not come out publicly until 1988, at age 49, during a radio broadcast in which he and the conservative journalist
Peregrine Worsthorne debated Britain’s so-called
Section 28 legislation, which forbade authorities from “promoting homosexuality.”
As Mr. McKellen recalled it, “When he said something particularly nasty about gay people, I said I’m one of them myself.”
Mr. Jacobi, by his own reckoning, did not come out at all. “I kind of oozed out,” he said with a laugh.
While still in college, Mr. Jacobi said he told his mother he was gay, and her reaction was, “Oh, all boys go through this phase.”
Years later, Mr. Jacobi said: “I never made a point of stating: I am gay. I can’t explain why I didn’t do that. It wasn’t fear. It was just that, after a time, I assumed everybody knew.”
Today, the two men agree that Mr. McKellen, who is a member of gay advocacy and support groups like
Stonewall U.K., is the far more vocal and political of their pairing.
On their visit to the
L.G.B.T. center, Mr. McKellen kept its executive director,
Glennda Testone, on her toes with a barrage of questions about its mission and funding.
When Ms. Testone said the center receives money from “every legal source you can imagine,” Mr. McKellen mischievously inquired: “Prostitution?”
“No,” Ms. Testone answered. “I said legal, remember.”
Mr. Jacobi, meanwhile, preferred to let his wide eyes do the talking after he was shown a
Keith Haring mural teeming with imaginative depictions of male anatomy and its uses.
Asked what he thought of the artwork, Mr. Jacobi said, “I can’t quite speak yet.”
Gary Janetti, the writer and executive producer of “Vicious” (
whose second season begins on Aug. 23), said in an interview that Mr. McKellen and Mr. Jacobi were embodiments of how the popular culture is important for gay people to learn about their peers and predecessors.
“You don’t learn gay history in school,” said Mr. Janetti, who has also produced comedies like
“Will & Grace” and
“Family Guy.”“Until we actually have a textbook,” he continued, “we’re this subculture that has to pass down our history verbally.”
Beyond their professional accomplishments, Mr. Jacobi and Mr. McKellen have seen “extraordinary change take place in their lives,” Mr. Janetti said, and were gay at times that required “extraordinary courage.”
Mr. McKellen and Mr. Jacobi acknowledged that they have been criticized for their involvement in “Vicious,” which some reviewers have said offers a stereotypical depiction of a mincing, over-the-top gay couple.
“It’s an exaggeration of types,” Mr. McKellen said. “It’s not a social documentary.”
Even so, Mr. Jacobi said, “Vicious” was progressive in its own way, for being a rare sitcom to focus on gay men in their 70s.
“Ian asks the audience, every show, ‘At the top of those stairs, do you think they sleep in twin beds or a double bed?’ ” Mr. Jacobi said. “And 100 percent put their hands up for the double bed.”
After their visit to the L.G.B.T. center, Mr. McKellen and Mr. Jacobi were driven a few blocks south to the
Stonewall Inn, the bar that is considered the birthplace of the American gay-rights movement.
Inside, they met a bartender who gave his name only as
Tree, and who said that he was also 76 years old. When he turned 80, Tree said, it would coincide with the 50th anniversary of the riots that began there in June 1969.
“Then,” Mr. McKellen said to Tree, “they’re going to lay you out on the bar and lick you all over.”
Tree replied, “They don’t have to wait four years.”
