HOTLINE  Winter 2003-2004
(Virgin Rail Magazine)

ARGUABLY THE LEADING ACTOR OF HIS GENERATION, SIR IAN MCKELLEN HAS WOWED AUDIENCES WORLDWIDE ON BOTH STAGE AND SCREEN. FROM MACBETH TO MAGNETO, NO ROLE IS TOO FAR FOR BRITAIN'S SECOND OPENLY GAY KNIGHT, BUT, AS HE TELLS BILLY CHAINSAW, CAPTAIN HOOK PROVED THE MOST CHALLENGING...

How fabulous it must feel to be Sir Ian McKellen right now. Not only is he about to reprise his magical role of sagely wizard Gandalf, in Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King, but he's also got everyone from nerds to grandmas twittering like schoolgirls over the wealth of possibilities that could shape his acting future. "Is he going to replace the late Richard Harris as Professor Dumbledore in the next Harry Potter movie?" internet message boards demand. Is Rings director Peter Jackson really going to cast him in another JRR Tolkien adaptation, The Hobbit? Sadly, neither rumour is true, though the fact that his name is on everybody's lips is helping to ensure that one of this country's most legendary performers is kept gainfully employed.

And well he should be. Internationally renowned as the leading British actor of his generation, the masterful thespian has wowed critics and audiences alike with award-winning performances on both stage and screen. From his London Theatre Critics' Award for Macbeth back in 1976, to his more recent Golden Globe triumph for Rasputin, McKellen has become a dinner party hero for luvvie intellectuals.

It's deliciously ironic then, that a new generation of admirers, not schooled in Shakespeare, but instead reared on comic book culture, has also taken McKellen to heart. Thanks to the aforementioned Gandalf, along with mutant super-villain Magneto in Bryan Singer's X-Men movies, the Burnley-born knight has never been hipper. While older fans may raise their eyebrows at their idol's fashionable status, Sir Ian is more than content with the way things are turning out.

"The quality of the work in Lord Of The Rings is as good as anything I have ever done on screen or stage over the last 40 years, so I am very happy for it to be so widely recognised. Fortunately, the success of the two X-Men movies means that Magneto rivals Gandalf's fame and people realise that I am an actor who can play more than one part! Although being so well disguised under Gandalf's long hair, perhaps people don't realise it's the same actor in Richard III or my other films. In the end, it is Gandalf himself who is the celebrity not Ian McKellen."

What was it about Gandalf that attracted you to the role?

"Not having ever read Tolkien's novels, I judged Lord Of The Rings entirely on the quality of the screenplay, which was excellent. I liked Gandalf's common sense, humility, frailty and determination -and that is just Gandalf the Grey. I was the luckiest actor in the trilogy, playing two parts - Gandalf the White being another type of wizard."

Are there any particularly personal traits that you brought to the role, or did you simply play Gandalf as he was written?

“As usual. I started with the characteristics of the role. But it is always true that relating the character to one’s own personality is likely to make the acting more convincing. Gandalf, being such a rich character, I didn’t feel the need to embellish.”

The filming of the three Rings movies happened simultaneously over a 12-month period. Lesser actors would have lost touch with reality, absorbing themselves entirely in the mythical realm of Middle-earth. Not so, Sir Ian.

"In a 12-hour working day, it's unlikely that an actor will be expected to be in character for more than 15 minutes in front of the camera. The real world of waking, eating, resting and talking is ever present and the people around you — hundreds of them —are constant reminders of the real world."

Recollect a particularly memorable moment during the filming of the Rings movies... "It was a thrilling sunny winter's day when I was flown by helicopter onto a snowy ridge in the Southern Alps of New Zealand, in full Gandalf rig, accompanied by the rest of the Fellowship. The helicopter circled around us, while we trudged up to our knees in the virgin snow. I felt like Edmund Hillary, who had practised on similar slopes for his ascent of Mount Everest, 50 years previously."

There can't be many Shakespearian actors who can claim to have their own action figures. Are you happy with your likeness to the Gandalf toys?

"Gandalf has turned up as various models, some of which look like him and some of which don't. My favourite piece of merchandise is a glass goblet made for Burger King outlets, which lights up red and which I use for soda or water."

Acting aside, a BBC radio appearance in 1988 played an unexpectedly major part in both expanding Sir Ian's audience and changing his life. McKellen had been invited to take part in a Radio 4 discussion programme about Conservative party leader Margaret Thatcher's Section 28 of the Local Government Act. Section 28 made the public promotion of homosexuality by local government bodies illegal. During the discussion, McKellen came out as a gay man.

Can you recall the moment and the reasons that prompted you to announce your homosexuality so publicly?

"I was part of the campaign against Section 28, that nasty homophobic measure which tried to inhibit local authorities from helping gay organisations. It was easier to express my disgust by explaining why I took it so personally and so I slipped out of the closet aged 49. In 1988, gay people and their problems were not much addressed by the mainstream media. One happy result of Section 28 was the creation of the influential lobbying group Stonewall, of which I was a founder-member. The considerable advances in pro-gay legislation have been mainly due to Stonewall's efforts. Personally, coming out was one of the most important things I've ever done, lifting from my shoulders the millstone of lies that I hadn't even realised I was carrying."

What did you think and how did you react when you discovered you were to be one of the first openly gay men to be knighted by the Queen?

"The first openly gay knight was the novelist Angus Wilson. I was the second. Some gays who had long been fighting on behalf of us all resented the prominence that my coming out attracted. It was wrongly assumed that I wished to become some sort of leader among gay activists, whereas in reality I was happier to be a foot soldier. I understood why some objected to my accepting an honour from a homophobic Tory government, but I thought an openly gay knight, who was also an opponent of Section 28, might well be useful in presenting gay aspirations to a wider public.”

Are there any specific gay events or causes that you are personally involved in at the moment?

"These days my contribution to Stonewall's work is to help with fundraising. But I am keeping an eye on the advance being made towards establishing gay relationships on a legal basis. It's only fair that stable gay relationships of long standing should have the same rights and responsibilities as married couples. I know the image of gay marriage is to some people horrific and ludicrous — two brides in white or two grooms at the altar — but the ritual of church weddings is not the point. The issue is one of equality and, for too long, gay relationships have been hidden and unrecognised and therefore misunderstood."

Did your own sexuality attract you to the role of James Whale [the British director of such films as Frankenstein] in Gods And Monsters?

"Indeed it did, as there have been far too few honest films about gay people. Gods And Monsters presented a gay hero with all his virtues and faults and was a good antidote to those previous movies that used gay characters only for light relief or melodramatic effect. Gods And Monsters was Hollywood growing up in its relations with sexuality. James Whale is certainly one of my favourite roles because Bill Condon's screenplay was so excellent. None of the actors and crew earned much money, but what does that matter when the resulting film is so full of love? It has a continuing life on video and is already a classic."

Few actors can constantly shift between all acting mediums and genres as successfully as you have. Does this spring from you not wanting to be pigeonholed, or is it that you feel a personal need to keep pushing yourself?

"I have never wanted to be typecast, one of those actors who plays a variation on a one-note theme. So just as I enjoy playing a wide variety of characters, from good to bad to ugly to cute - so I have enjoyed of late working in film and television, as well as in theatres of various sizes and shapes. This keeps me from getting complacent and I hope entertains audiences who enjoy protean acting." [Proteus was an ancient Greek sea-god who assumed many forms.]

Which has been the most challenging acting role of your career and why?

"Perhaps playing Captain Hook twice a day at the National Theatre. It wasn't easy at the end of a three-hour performance, fighting with a Peter Pan half my age on a sloping stage, duelling up and down stairs and rigging in a pair of high-heeled boots and a long-bottomed wig. My reward was an audience of young children booing and then hooting as I jumped 20 feet off the ship to the hard stage below, where I was swallowed by a crocodile."

You seem to be permanently on the go. What continues to fire that urge?

"It may be my rather puritanical upbringing at odds with my inborn laziness that makes me feel guilty at the end of the day, unless I am able to point at some achievement. But this need be no more impressive than cooking a meal or going for a long walk. Until recently I could fairly be called a workaholic, but of late I've enjoyed taking months off from work."

What does the future hold for Sir Ian McKellen?

"Look out next for Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King, which will be released in time for the Christmas holidays; shortly followed by the film Emile, in which I play a man facing retirement; and the British movie Asylum, presenting a love triangle between a murderer, his mistress and me, his psychiatrist. You might also see me travelling north on Virgin Trains to visit my stepmother in Cumbria!"