Speaking to W magazine about his upcoming Broadway role in Angels in America, actor Lee Pace, who has appeared in movies The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Infamous, said that it was important for gay actors to play gay roles.

However, when asked by W interviewer Brian Moylan about his own sexuality, the actor said he found the question “intrusive”.

“I’ve dated men. I’ve dated women,” the 38-year-old actor said. “I don’t know why anyone would care. I’m an actor and I play roles. To be honest, I don’t know what to say — I find your question intrusive.”

Moylan later tweeted: “I interviewed Lee Pace about being in Angels in America and asked if he was gay and…it did not go as planned.”

https://twitter.com/BrianJMoylan/status/968921174955773952

Pace’s sexuality has been the subject of speculation in the past. Sir Ian McKellan, who appeared alongside Pace in The Hobbit saga was accused of “outing” him in 2011 when he listed Hobbit co-stars who he believed to be gay during an interview with German website Brash.de, reports The Advocate.

In 2014 Pace, who has played queer characters in the past in 2011’s The Normal Heart and the TV series Halt and Catch Fire, told Buzzfeed: “Who cares about people’s personal lives? I mean, honestly. How are you then able to disappear into a role? Trust me, if I had something interesting to say about myself, I would.”

Pace will play Joe Pitt in Tony Kushner’s 1985 masterpiece Angels in America, which returns to Broadway for the first time in 25 years on March 25.