Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality, and discovering the character you're playing through your own experience - so we're all different.
Before acting, I wanted to become a journalist. I also toyed with the idea of being a chef - but that's only when people asked me what I wanted to be. In fact, I always used to say I wanted to be an actor, but I didn't ever believe that I was good enough to be come one.
I don't make much distinction between being a stand-up comic and acting Shakespeare - in fact, unless you're a good comedian, you're never going to be able to play Hamlet properly.
I think the point to be understood is that we're all different. I've never been a fan of theories of acting. I didn't go to drama school, so I was never put through a training that was limited by someone saying, 'This is the way you should act.'
If I was on a march at the moment I would be saying to everyone: 'Be honest with each other. Admit there are limitless possibilities in relationships, and love as many people as you can in whatever way you want, and get rid of your inhibitions, and we'll all be happy.
If you've got Mystique as your girlfriend the fun you could have in bed - I've just imagined X-Men 3 might open with me in bed with Patrick Stewart.
It was wrongly assumed that I wished to become some sort of leader among gay activists, whereas in reality I was happier to be a foot soldier.
It's only fair that stable gay relationships of long standing should have the same rights and responsibilities as married couples. I know the image of gay marriage is to some people horrific and ludicrous.
Personally, coming out was one of the most important things I've ever done, lifting from my shoulders the millstone of lies that I hadn't even realized I was carrying.
That was the big effect Lord of the Rings had on me. It was discovering New Zealand. And even more precious were the people- not at all like the Australians.
The thing you notice here after America is how refreshingly ordinary people look because they haven't had their chin wrapped around the back of their ears.
Try and understand what part you have to play in the world in which you live. There's more to life than you know and it's all happening out there. Discover what part you can play and then go for it.
When you were on stage, you could be absolutely open about your emotions and indulge them and express yourself in a way that - in real life - I wasn't doing.
Sir Ian invited his "Coronation Street" co-star, Anthony Cotton, to accompany him to Sir Elton John's annual ball.
Sir Ian visited a nude beach while filming "X-Men: The Last Stand" in Vancouver, Canada.
Sir Ian's major movie debut was the lead role in 1998's Apt Pupil.
Sir Ian has urged the British government to take action against religious leaders who teach homophobic views. He hates the idea of curtailing freedom of speech, but insists religion shouldn't be used to incite prejudice against any social groups.
Ian McKellen refuses to write an autobiography, because he wouldn't be able to write about his death, which would leave his story incomplete.
Sir Ian made a surprise cameo appearance on a London stage, and nobody noticed.
Sir Ian has attacked British laws allowing homosexual couples to form civil unions, saying they are absurd and insisting that they discriminate against both homosexual and heterosexual couples.
Sir Ian has criticised Jake Gyllenhaal for being apprehensive about kissing his "Brokeback Mountain" co-star Heath Ledger on screen.
Sir Ian has donated the shirt and tie he wore in the movie "The Da Vinci Code" to Bolton School, his old school in England, while on a visit there. The items will be auctioned off on eBay to raise money to help fund clever children from less wealthy families to attend the fee-paying school.
Sir Ian McKellen has beaten Sir Elton John to the position of the most influential homosexual icon in the UK, in a list marking the end of the Europe-wide gay festival EuroPride.
Sir Ian was voted the most influential homosexual icon in the UK.
Sir Ian McKellen has topped the annual "Pink List" of the 100 most influential gay British men and women.
Ian is also occasionally credited as Sir Ian McKellen
Ian is a vegetarian.
Ian was elected to Council of British Actors' Equity (1971).
In 2005, Ian fulfilled his lifelong ambition of playing 'King Lear,' arguably Shakespeare's greatest role, on the London stage.
Ian is the only performer to receive an acting Academy Award nomination for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
Ian won Broadway's 1981 Tony Award as Best Actor (Play) for originating the role of Antonio Salieri in Amadeus. He was nominated in the same category in 1984 for "Ian McKellen Acting Shakespeare."
Ian originally aspired to be a journalist.
Ian graduated with a 2:2 in English from Cambridge University.
Ian was awarded the 1989 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor for his performance in Othello.
Before performing the role of Gandalf, Ian listened to a recording of Tolkien reading Gandalf's lines from the novel. He used this a base for creating the character, and imitated the accent used by Tolkien in the recording.
Ian was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1985 (1984 season) for Best Actor in a Revival for Wild Honey.
While being a guest on Jay Leno (December 26, 2003), Ian said that he had not seen X2 when it opened in theaters; he only saw it when the DVD hit the stores.
Ian was offered the part of Mission Commander Swanbeck in Mission: Impossible II (2000). He was not able to accept the role, due to a prior theatre engagement in London. The part eventually went to Anthony Hopkins.
Ian is an avid gay rights activist..
Ian was officially knighted in 1990.
Ian came out of the closet on the BBC Radio 4 program, while discussing Margaret Thatcher's "section 28" legislation which would make the "public promotion of homosexuality" a crime.
Ian played an ex-Nazi soldier in Apt Pupil, and an ex-Jewish prisoner in X-Men.
Ian is approximately 5'11" tall.
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