Lee Pace is currently starring on Broadway in Angels in America as closeted Mormon Joe Pitt, but the 38-year-old actor says he "happily owns" being part of the LGBT community in his private life.

Pace had originally given an interview to W magazine, where he seemed irritated at questions about his sexuality.

“I’ve dated men [and] I’ve dated women. I don’t know why anyone would care,” the 38-year-old Hobbit actor exclaimed. “I’m an actor and I play roles. To be honest, I don’t know what to say—I find your question intrusive.”

Almost immediately after the interview ran, though, critics pointed out he had taken some pretty high-profile LGBT roles in Showtime's A Soldier's Girl, the recent revival of The Normal Heart, the new staging of Angels, and AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire as bisexual Joe McMillan.

Perhaps that gave him a chance to reconsider his perspective: On Twitter, Pace wrote, "In a recent phone interview, I was asked questions that I wasn’t expecting and found myself momentarily at a loss for the right words. My privacy is important to me, so I protect it. When interviewed by the media, I keep the focus on my work."

"As a member of the queer community," he added, "I understand the importance of living openly, being counted, and happily owning who I am. That’s how I’ve always lived my life... just as it's been important to me to portray queer characters with dignity for my entire career."

The W interview sparked quite a debate, with some arguing actors have a right to privacy and others insisting taking high-profile queer roles like Angels' Joe Pitt and Heart's Bruce Niles demand a little honesty.