Sir Ian McKellen shares heartfelt advice he gave Troye Sivan before he came out as gay
Sivan previously revealed he considered coming out to McKellen while they were working together on Waiting for Godot in 2010
By Aaron Sugg
Sir Ian McKellen has shared the advice he gave Troye Sivan before the singer came out as gay.
McKellen and Sivan first worked together in 2010, appearing in a touring production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in Australia.
They reunited in 2026, when the 87-year-old actor provided the opening voiceover for Sivan’s music video for ‘Party’, from his fourth studio album, She’s the Best.
“It’s going to be alright” – Sir Ian McKellen shares touching message with Troye Sivan
Speaking to Fournine to promote the upcoming A Christmas Carol-inspired film Ebenezer, in which he plays Marley, the former business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge, McKellen recalled their conversation.
“I don’t know whether I picked up some queer gay vibe from him or not, but I said to him, as we said goodbye, I said, ‘don’t you worry, Troy, it’s going to be alright.'”
“That’s what he remembers me having said to him, but I, I admire his present manifestation of himself. He’s doing very well.”
Sivan on considering coming out to McKellen before his family
Sivan came out publicly in a YouTube video shared in 2013, when he was 18. He had already come out to his family at the age of 15.
However, as the singer has previously revealed, he considered coming out to McKellen first while they were working together on Waiting for Godot.
Speaking to GQ Germany in 2023, he said: “I hadn’t come out to my parents at the time, but I considered whether I would tell Ian McKellen. Somehow, I felt like he had noticed. I wanted to talk to someone about it so urgently, and he was so friendly.”
McKellen came out at 48
McKellen, however, already knew without Sivan having to say anything. McKellen publicly came out as gay in 1988, during a live debate on BBC Radio 3’s Third Ear. He was 48 at the time.
Both stars appeared on the cover of Attitude in June 2018 showing two different generations of queer experience and sexuality.