[RayChuang88]

Ian McKellen, on the other hand...well, sometimes you gotta separate the politics from the profession ;)

You're forgetting that McKellen was trained as a Shakespearean actor and has a long history of excellence doing Shakespeare plays. That means McKellen is an extremely highly-accomplished actor to start with.

By the way, McKellen is actually not very comfortable talking politics, because he very well knows that bringing up the issue of homosexuality (he's openly gay) may not play well in many parts of the world. He'd rather talk about being an actor--and I don't blame him. :-)

[general_re]

That's basically what I meant - McKellen is a brilliant actor, in the classical mold of actors. Which means you pretty much have to separate his lifestyle and other baggage out from his profession, or you'll wind up missing what is, for the most part, an excellent body of work. His turn as Richard III is probably the finest portrayal of that role ever committed to film, IMO.

[MrConfettiMan]

Mr. McKellen may understand that being an actor and talking politics on the world stage simply having to do with each other. Don't we wish all actors had the same insight...

[Flying Circus]

His homosexual orientation is what I've heard him talk about most in interviews. He seems quite happy to work through the list of actors he worked with who he also had sex with or wanted to have sex with. Now when I see him in interview, I am double fast to turn the channel and move on. No arguing, he is a good actor though.