Photo: Getty/NBC Universal

Oh Sir Ian! In a December 2012 interview with Germany's Brash.de he might have stepped in it. He was commenting on the progress the film industry has made in the last decade in terms of out actors and to illustrate, McKellen contrasted his experience on The Lord of the Rings set-- where only he, a makeup artist and a wardrobe person were out gay men-- to The Hobbit which features a number of "openly gay" actors.

As the interview is in German and we don't want to possibly mistranslate, here's the original text ...

Immer noch gibt es kaum Kollegen, die Ihrem Beispiel folgen, oder?

Ian McKellen: Ich würde schon sagen, dass sich in dieser Hinsicht in den letzten zehn Jahren in der Branche einiges getan hat. Gucken Sie nur, wie viele offen schwule Schauspieler beim „Hobbit“ mit dabei waren: zwei der Zwerge, dazu Luke Evans, Stephen Fry, Lee Pace. Bei „Der Herr der Ringe“ war ich noch der einzige, daneben gab es noch mein Make-up-Artist und einen aus dem Garderoben-Team. Das ist doch erst einmal ein Fortschritt, oder? (source Brash.de)

Still, there is hardly colleagues who follow your example, right?

Ian McKellen: I would say that has been done in this regard in the last ten years in the industry a lot. Just look only how many openly gay actors in the "Hobbit" with were: two of the dwarves, to Luke Evans, Stephen Fry, Lee Pace. In "The Lord of the Rings" I was the only one next to it there was my make-up artist and one from the wardrobe team. That's only once a progress, right?