«I tried my first joint when I was 30», Ian McKellen said.
Even Davis interviewed Ian McKellen on the #QueerAF podcast at National Student Pride 2019, discussing his lifetime achievements and relationship with the LGBTQ community.
They spoke about chemsex, drugs, his coming out and empowered the young LGBTQ+ audience.
The event took place on February 23rd at the non-profit organisations, now five-year-long residency, Westminster Marylebone campus.
Davis and McKellen hosted a live-stream of #QueerAF the National Student Pride podcast. In conversation, McKellen proposed to Evan Davis they speak about chemsex. Otherwise known as getting high and horny or party and play – those who take part in chemsex do so to change the sex they are having with a so-called ‘holy trinity’ of drugs.
McKellen spoke about when he first tried a joint at the age of 30, with Evan Davis adding that ‘drugs were much weaker back then’.
The audience at National Student Pride were enthralled by Ian with his re-tellings of his pursuits to join the theatre as «one of the reasons I became a professional actor is because I learned that I could meet queers in the British theatre» and admitting «I just wish when I was younger I could have been myself».
McKellen got many a laugh with his unrelenting wit, gesticulating at one point about «drawings of genitalia in public bathrooms».
The conversation also looked at various aspects of McKellen’s life:
- His coming out story
- How Margaret Thatcher’s Section 28 Law made him the activist he is today and how the queer scene in theatre was what first attracted him to the profession
- His advice to young LGBTQ+ students
- Holding Elijah Wood’s hand while he got a tattoo during the filming of Lord of the Rings
