Ian McKellen on real-life metaphors in #XMen films.

“It is very nice going back to work with old friends like Halle (Berry) and Patrick (Stewart),” says Sir Ian McKellen to Express on reuniting with the original cast in this year’s blockbuster X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST.

On relating the X-Men films to real life, McKellen notes that “Bryan Singer [the director] was always clear about that when he asked me to do the very first X-Men. It is a gay metaphor. It is not just a fantasy story, not just putting on fancy costumes. It is about something.

“So many of my regrets are primarily to do with being gay at a time when it was illegal to be gay,” he says when comparing the allegorical struggles played within the films. “It has been so ridiculous but it feels very constricting and difficult.

“I would not want to rob myself of the joy of coming out and being honest and enjoying the company of other people who had been on their own journey. And to have been through that journey, as hard as it was and cruel as it was and as unnecessary as it was, has been wonderful.

“I feel although I was rejected by society, I have helped to change it.”