When you're on stage with an audience, the director's nowhere to be seen. He's onto the next job.

I think I'm a bit gruffer than I used to be, and I'm certainly older.

I'm not experienced enough, or certain enough of my acting on the screen to say to a director, "You are wrong, I am right. I will only do it this way." I could never feel that, I wish I could be absolutely certain. But on the stage, it's different. I know where I am on the stage.

There's no sex in Middle Earth.

That's the imagination that happens in the theater. That imagination is translated in film by the film magicians and all the technology.

It was wrongly assumed that I wished to become some sort of leader among gay activists, whereas in reality I was happier to be a foot soldier.

It is very, very, very difficult for an American actor who wants a film career to be open about his sexuality. And even more difficult for a woman if she's lesbian. It`s very distressing to me that that should be the case. The film industry is very old fashioned in California.