Posted in: Movies | Tagged: bryan singer, film, ian mckellen, kevin spacey

Sir Ian McKellen Comments on the Allegations Against Bryan Singer

In the age of #MeToo and #TimesUp people are looking for some sort of easy explanation as to why these things happen. If there is a reason or an explanation then that makes the horrifying allegations something much easier for human beings to "digest". It's hard wrapping your head around these sorts of allegations including the ones against Bryan Singer and Kevin Spacey. Sir Ian McKellen spoke at National Student Pride 2019 (via Metro Weekly) and was asked about the allegations against people like Singer and Spacey. McKellen claimed that both of them being in the closet contributed to the allegations.

"With the couple of names you've mentioned, people I've worked with, both of them were in the closet," he said. "And hence all their problems as people and their relationships with other people, if they had been able to be open about themselves and their desires, they wouldn't have started abusing people in the way they've been accused."

That is an extremely dangerous and bad take much in the same way Spacey tried to deflect the allegations by coming out of the closet. McKellen appears to be saying that closeted gay men commit assault which is not true. There are millions of men in the closet that never touch another human being in an inappropriate way. To try and say that was a contributing factor is to throw an entire segment of the LGBTQ+ community under the bus. There are plenty of people that never come out and that is their personal choice. This is the sort of statement that someone will use to make a grand generalizing statement on the entire community instead of putting the personal responsibility on the people involved.

McKellen went on to throw another group of people under the bus by implying that these allegations aren't real because he's waiting for someone to accuse him.

"Well frankly, I'm waiting for someone to accuse me of something, and me wondering whether they're not telling the truth and me having forgotten."

Finally, McKellen went on talk about whether or not someone should be forced out of the industry when they are accused of things like this and, once again, seems to have missed the entire point.

"Whether they should be forced to stop working, that's debatable," he said. "I rather think that's up to the public. Do you want to see someone who has been accused of something that you don't approve of again? If the answer's no, then you won't buy a ticket, you won't turn on the television. But there may be others for who that's not a consideration. And it's difficult to be exactly black and white."

Sir Ian, you know that a movie isn't just one person. If someone made a movie with an accuser directing or acting and people choose not to see that movie because of that person it isn't just them that is impacted. Movies are a collaborative medium and everyone is touched by something like that. The actors are constantly asked why they would work with someone like that and their careers are impacting. The cinematographer, the composer, all of the people behind-the-scenes are impacted when a movie bombs because they just had to have an alleged abuser involved.

These are some very bad takes, Sir Ian, and we expected better from you. It's hard when people you know and have worked with end up being monsters but you need to come to terms with that. We all need to come to terms with it and accept that there is no way to make any of this easier to digest. It's always going to be horrible because the allegations are horrible. Sometimes, monsters hide in plain sight and inferring that being in the closet is a contributing factor is so dangerous to all of the LGBTQ+ still in the closet out there.

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