Oscar race row 2016: Sir Ian McKellen wades in on diversity debate

ICONIC British actor Sir Ian McKellen has waded in on the Oscar race row by accusing the Academy Awards of homophobia as well as racism.

Sir Ian McKellen criticises the Academy Awards

The Lord of The Rings star claimed the organisation responsible for handing out the highest honours in Hollywood is equally as prejudice about homosexuals as it is about minority ethnicities.

He suggested the bias views of the voting members was the reason why no publicly gay man has ever won the award for best actor. 

Speaking to The Guardian, Sir Ian expressed his sympathy for black actors, however he stated the issue was a much wider one.

The 76-year-old - who was first nominated for the best actor award in 1998 - said: "No openly gay man has ever won the Oscar... I wonder if that is prejudice or chance."

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Noting that Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sean Penn have all won best actor Oscars for playing gay men, Sir Ian said: "How clever, how clever. What about giving me one for playing a straight man?

"My speech has been in two jackets. ‘I'm proud to be the first openly gay man to win the Oscar.' I've had to put it back in my pocket twice," he added.

For the second year running, no ethnic minority actors or actresses have been nominated for the prestigious Oscar awards, which has sparked demands for a change while the revived Twitter hashtag #Oscarssowhite has started trending again.

Following the public backlash, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unanimously voted to improve the diversity of it's memberships. 

The academy will decrease the voting rights of inactive participants with a new set of rules and will add three new governors to its board with immediate effect.

In a statement released last week, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said: "The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up."

He continued: "These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition".

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