Ian McKellen on Gandalf, panto and coming out in Hollywood
BY William Leith
26th Jan 2024 Celebrities
6 min read
From Shakespeare to film star, Sir Ian McKellan today is a household name—but it hasn't always been this way. We chat Gandalf, gay activism and Widow Twankey
Thanks to his wonderful portrayal of a
7,000-year-old wizard in Lord of the Rings and
a mutant called Magneto in the X-Men series,
Sir Ian McKellen is now one of the world's
most sought after film actors—as well as the
leading British stage actor of his generation.
But the working class boy who grew up in
Wigan and Bolton, where he was head boy at school and saw a different play every
week at the local rep, never seriously
thought he'd be a professional actor.
The first time he was in a play was
aged six with his parents—an amateur
production. "Theatre was an absorbing
hobby and that's how I thought it
would go on for the rest of my life."
It wasn't until he went to Cambridge
and was president of the theatrical
Marlowe Society that he gained the
confidence to believe he might make a
living on the stage.
"Theatre was an absorbing hobby and that's how I thought it would go on for the rest of my life"
What made the difference, says McKellen, was reading a
review in a national newspaper that
called his performance as Justice Shallow in Henry IV Part 2 "brilliant".
In person, he can be intense and a
little formidable. When I asked him to
describe himself, he sat for a long time,
perfectly still. Then simply said, "Actor.
Gay man. English."
He came out as gay
in 1988 during a discussion about the
controversial, and recently scrapped,
Section 28 of the Local Government
Act. He was 49. Since then, he's campaigned for gay causes and co-founded
Stonewall, the equal rights group.
Now 64, he was knighted in 1991 for
his services to the performing arts and
has won some 40 international awards
and two Oscar nominations, the latest
for the wizard Gandalf.
This month
he's back on cinema screens as Gandalf in the third of the Lord of the Rings
trilogy—The Return of The King.
RD: You're suddenly a big film star.
What's a 7,000-year-old wizard done
for your career?
McKellen: It means that the actor who
plays Gandalf gets offered a wider range
of parts than before. And that there are
a lot of people who know I'm the actor
who plays Gandalf. But I feel I'm riding
on his coat-tails. I didn't create Gandalf. In a sense, Gandalf created me.
RD: How did you get into the part?
McKellen: I think I was a good choice,
because if you're playing Gandalf you
have to be able to let your hair down
and do some big acting. I know it's not
quite Shakespeare, but my interest in
physicality was useful for Gandalf—he's got a lot of walking to do, and
fighting, and flying.
Ian McKellen began his acting journey on the stage, appearing on Broadway and in Shakespearean productions
RD: Talking of physicality, you're looking quite trim.
McKellen: I don't get too obsessed. If
I have to take my clothes off in public
for a job, then I'll decide what my body
should look like. If I'm playing a thin
part then I'd better get thin.
RD: You starred in, scripted and produced a film of Richard III, cast in an
imaginary pre-war Fascist Britain. Do
you think Shakespeare is still relevant?
McKellen: The deeper you go into
Shakespeare, the more jewels you find.
Shakespeare's a force of nature and the
language is still accessible. I don't see
any sign that the plays are worn out.
RD: When was the first time you acted?
McKellen: Probably at the same time
other people did—in the playground.
Acting's only using your imagination.
Playing cops and robbers, cowboys and
Indians. You change your voice and
do things you wouldn't normally do.
That's playing. You're in a play.
"In a sense, Gandalf created me"
RD: You went to Cambridge. Was
that important?
McKellen: Without all those opportunities there, I don't know if I'd have
found my way into the theatre. By the
time I left I'd got very good reviews
from some famous theatre critics. So if
they took me seriously, I thought, maybe
I could become an actor like Corin Redgrave and Derek Jacobi. As with so
many things in my life, it's been luck.
RD: Luck?
McKellen: I've always thought the way
I got into Cambridge was a fluke. In
the interview I stood up on a chair and
did a bit of Henry V. That got me an
exhibition and some money towards
my studies, but my A levels were very
poor.
In those days you had to pass
Latin to get into Cambridge, and I only
did that because two of the passages
I'd translated from a book I'd bought
turned up in the exam. Unbelievable.
Without that chance, I think it's very
unlikely I would have become an actor.
Credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr. Sir Ian McKellen appears alongside Sir Patrick Stewart in X-Men
RD: You've done two X-Men films
based on the Marvel comic books.
What got you into that?
McKellen: The director Bryan Singer
sold the concept of X-Men as a parable
of people who are alienated from
society. Marvel Comics says it appeals
to young gays, young blacks and young
Jews.
And the argument between
Xavier and Magneto as to what you do
if you're a mutant—do you reconcile
yourself to society or do you take on
society?—well, that's an interesting
argument.
I think X-Men can be separated from all the other comic fantasies
like Superman. They all have the same
story, the wimp who turns into a
superhero. X-Men is different.
RD: You once said you started out using
acting as a form of disguise, but that
later it became a form of revelation.
McKellen: If you were gay in 1961,
when I started acting, and you were
sexually active, you were breaking the
law. So it was something you didn't
advertise. You were a criminal.
And I
think, like a lot of other gay actors, I did
it because I could find an activity in
which I could draw attention to myself under controlled conditions. I
could present my emotions in a public forum without being chastised for
it—on the contrary, I was praised for it.
"What you do if you're a mutant—do you reconcile yourself to society or do you take on society?"
RD: And how have things changed?
McKellen: I finally came out something like 30 years later. I began to feel
that my acting was about being open,
honest. Not about disguising, but using
my own emotions. It became easier to
be genuinely emotional within the part.
In the past, psychologically, I needed
acting in a way that I don't need
it now I go on doing it because I do it
rather well, and there's a pride in that.
RD: What's the essence of anti-gay prejudice?
McKellen: Something pretty deep,
because it's passionately held and felt.
You can look to homophobia within
yourself if you're a gay man, and discover it. It's probably so ingrained in
me that I still share it.
RD: What do you mean by that?
McKellen: You're aware that you're not
wanted and not accepted. It's uncomfortable. You have to be terribly well-adjusted to laugh at the situation and
say, "They're wrong."
I don't stand up
in every situation and go out of my
way to stand up for my rights, and
that's slightly homophobic.
Credit: Pete Birkinshaw, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr. Nowadays, Sir Ian McKellen can proudly flaunt his gay identity—but that wasn't always the case
RD: You've played a lot of straight men.
McKellen: And people don't seem
to have a problem with that. Nobody
says I'm unconvincing or acting badly.
But there is this feeling that young
actors must be straight.
Tom Cruise once made the case that if it was thought
by his fans that he was gay, his career
as a convincing straight man would
be endangered. He was absolutely wrong.
Because he's no longer married,
I'm not going to find it impossible
to imagine that he is married in his
next film. It just doesn't make sense
to me.
RD: Why are there so few gay people out
in Hollywood?
McKellen: The Hollywood film industry has never prided itself on being
in the vanguard of social change. I
mean, the Academy only discovered
there were black actors two seasons
ago [in 2002, when it awarded Oscars to
Denzel Washington and Halle Berry].
RD: What do you like to do when
you're not working?
McKellen: I take a lively interest in the
news as it's reported and the news as
it's not reported. And I spend a lot of
time on my website. Otherwise I do
what everybody else does when they're
not working—I see friends.
"The Hollywood film industry has never prided itself on being in the vanguard of social change"
RD: You once said you had hopes of
becoming a chef or a journalist.
McKellen: I like hosting dinner parties and I'm quite intrigued as to the
whole business of meals. I didn't
get beyond looking up various catering schools.
But I got paid for journalism long before I got paid for
acting. I used to write snippets for the
Bolton Evening News, my chit-chat
column. I went to see the editor about
joining his staff, but he warned me
that it was a very risky business.
That rather put me off. But I still
enjoy writing.
RD: What projects do you have in
the pipeline?
McKellen: I've recently made a film
called Emile, directed by Carl Bessai.
It's about old people whose lives are
in crisis. I play a man who's just retiring. As the character is only 60 and
I'm 64, the feeling that he's going to
meet his maker round every corner is
something I had to disabuse Carl about!
RD: Recently you said you wanted to
play Widow Twankey.
McKellen: It's one of my few ambitions
left. The assumption is one day I'm
going to play a dame. Well, it ain't gonna
happen unless I say it often enough.
This article is part of our archival collection and was originally published in December 2003. While we strive to present historical content accurately, please note that circumstances and information may have changed since the article's original publication. Some individuals mentioned in the article may no longer be alive, and events or details may have evolved. We encourage readers to consider the context of the original publication and to verify any current information independently.
Banner credit: Southbanksteve, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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