Ian McKellen: “I increasingly see organized religion as actually my enemy”

Sir Ian McKellen, whose new miniseries The Prisoner debuts on A&E Sunday, gave an interview in today’s Los Angeles Times that is much more substantive than his disastrous appearance on The View where the show’s co-hosts were a bit off their game and Elisabeth Hasselbeck was being her obnoxious self.

McKellen is a very outspoken man and he speaks his mind on a variety of subjects starting with religion:

“I increasingly see organized religion as actually my enemy. They treat me as their enemy,” said the British actor, who came out 20 years ago. “Not all Christians, of course. Not all Jews, not all Muslims. But the leaders. . . . Why should I take the judgment of a declared celibate about my sexual needs? He’s basing his judgment on laws that would fit life in the Bronze Age. So if I’m lost to God, organized religion is to blame.”

Being an out actor: “it is not easy being something that society for generations has taught everybody is beyond the pale.” To this day, he sometimes ducks questions from cabbies about whether he is married, exhausted by the notion of explaining himself to a stranger. “There are still times in my life where I pull back from being totally honest,” he said quietly, “and I can’t imagine a single straight person who would understand that.”

Hollywood’s attitudes toward gays: “The conventional wisdom is that if you are gay, you cannot play the romantic straight lead in a movie,” he said. “They’d rather have ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ The proposition from Mephistopheles as you sign the agreement that you will become a Hollywood star is that you will lie about yourself. That’s selling your soul. This business may involve disguise, but it’s about telling the truth. And I don’t think a closeted actor in this day and age can act as well as an actor who is out.”

On being 70: “You always think that 70 is the end of the road: ‘Somebody died when they were 73; good life,’ ” he mused on a recent bright fall afternoon, looking wistfully out a hotel window at the flame-tipped trees of Central Park below. “You’re closer to death, and you better make sure you don’t waste too much of your time doing things you don’t want to do. No point in saying things you don’t believe in.”