Ian McKellen Praises 14-Year-Old Director’s “Courage” After Starring In Debut​on April 17, 2025 at 11:38 pm

Ian McKellen is helping a young LGBTQ filmmaker get their start.

The 2x Oscar nominee recently appeared in 14-year old Jacob Franklin’s Dragged Through Time, which premieres July 26 at Windsor & Eton Pride, explaining that he met the young writer-director through a “mutual friend” and was inspired by his “courage.”

“I often look back to myself at his age and regret,” he told Maidenhead Advertiser. “I wasn’t close enough to my parents to talk to them about what I knew of myself, that I was gay.”

McKellen continued, “And the idea that at 14, I could have plucked up the courage to have a conversation with them about something so personal. So I never told either of my parents that their only son was gay. So to see him and this situation makes me think, ‘Oh perhaps I could have done this if I’d been a bit braver or the world had been a bit different.’”

Franklin added that it “was inspiring to have Ian McKellen involved, not only because he is a great professional actor, but more because he fought for gay rights.”

Produced by Windsor youth drama company Notice Productions, Dragged Through Time touches on major moments for the LGBTQ community throughout history.

“I wanted to make this film because there aren’t a lot of [LGBTQ] history films for young people,” said Franklin, adding: “History teaches us that things can sadly go backwards as well as forwards for [LGBTQ] people. But it also teaches us there have been many positives.”