British actor Patrick Stewart says that
supporting gay rights was “always a natural and uncomplicated
choice.”
The 74-year-old Stewart discussed his
longtime support of equality in an interview with gay glossy The
Advocate.
“When I look back to my early career
and early experience, my ease and comfort being in the company of and
intimately close with gay and lesbian colleagues and friends was
always, for me, the most natural, and I might even say at times
appealing aspects of the life I was living,” he said. “I think
this is where the theater is such an appealing world, because it
embraces everything and always has. So there was never a moment where
I made an intellectual choice that I would be a supporter of gay
civil rights. It was always a natural and uncomplicated choice. Then
later in life, as I got to know well-known activists like Ian
McKellen, I was only too happy to join campaigns, march, and support
in whatever way I could because it always seemed to me to be
something that much too much fuss was being made about.”
Stewart and McKellen's close friendship
has led to inaccurate assumptions about Stewart's sexuality,
including a Guardian article last year which identified the
actor as gay.
“Quite frankly, I was utterly
flattered by that assumption,” Stewart, who married his third wife
Sunny Ozell last year, said of the mistake. “And indeed the first
contact I had was from Ian McKellen, who sent me an email saying,
'Congratulations!' And I accepted the congratulations and said, 'I
think this is a very distinctive honor that I've been awarded.'”
Stewart, who is best know for his roles
in Star Trek and X-Men films, can currently be seen in
the film Match.