Veteran British actor Ian McKellen recently reflected on the "worst advice" he ever received during his career, revealing that Alec Guinness, who famously played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, once urged him to stop supporting the LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall.
In an interview with The Guardian, McKellen recounted how Guinness had invited him to an Italian lunch in Pimlico, London. The two initially engaged in casual conversation, but during the meal, Guinness disclosed the real reason for their meeting: he had heard McKellen was helping establish Stonewall.
"We chatted about this and that, until he came to the point of why he’d invited me," McKellen said. "He’d heard I was helping to set up Stonewall – a lobbying group, whose purpose was to make the case to government and the wider world that gay and lesbian people in Britain should be treated equally in law to the rest of the population."
"He thought it was inappropriate for an actor to get involved in public or political affairs, and he advised me, almost begged me, to pull out. That was advice from a previous generation, and I didn’t take it."
McKellen recalled Guinness's belief that actors should not engage in public or political matters, and his plea for McKellen to withdraw from such work. McKellen described this as "advice from a previous generation," which he ultimately chose not to follow.
The exact timing of this meeting remains unclear, though it is speculated to have occurred around Stonewall's founding in 1989. The organization went on to become a pivotal LGBTQ+ rights group in the UK, challenging military bans on gay service members and advocating for same-sex marriage legalization and various equality-related bills.
via： The Guardian