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Monday December 22, 09:43 AM
McKellen rides on Tolkein's chariot
By Chris Gardner
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - With a five-day domestic haul of
$125 million (71 million pounds), the last instalment of "The Lord of the
Rings: The Return of the King" is guaranteed to grab more than just a few
headlines for its record-setting box office.
But don't count on trilogy star Sir Ian McKellen to pick up a newspaper
to pore over stories about the film's performance. He says that it's not
because he doesn't care; he's just convinced that he had nothing to do
with it.
"I have no personal financial interest in the outcome, so I think it
would be a masochistic act to read the returns. I didn't do any publicity
for the second movie because I was shooting 'Emile', so I couldn't join
in, and I noticed that the takings for the second movie were considerably
more than the first, which I had helped publicise, so what the hell do
they need me for," McKellen said by telephone from London.
"As we've been going around the world -- (the actors who comprise) the
"Fellowship" -- we've been saying to ourselves, this is all very well,
with wonderful things to remember for the rest of our lives, but actually
do any of us need to do this? Would it make any difference if we all just
stayed at home?"
New Line Cinema's publicity team surely wouldn't be happy about that
and neither would the throngs of fans that McKellen and his cast mates
have come face to face with while making the "unnecessary" globe-trotting
promotional rounds.
"You know that the third film is going to be a success, but what you're
not prepared for is being on the receiving end of all that affection
people have for the characters and for the films," McKellen says. "If you
are in a public place, particularly with the other actors, wham! It's just
overwhelming, and I don't suppose it will ever happen to me again -- it's
been a thrilling experience."
Perhaps the only thing that comes close for Sir Ian is that other
franchise he's known for -- Bryan Singer's "X-Men". It's that and "Lord of
the Rings" that he can thank for being immortalised on, well, a box of
breakfast cereal.
"To have a lot of dolls made of two characters that I have played or to
find little representations of myself falling out of a cornflakes box or
on a Burger King mug, these are not necessarily desirable things, but when
they happen you just sort of hug yourself with delight," McKellen says.
But again, he doesn't want to take any credit for that either. "It's
happening around us and in spite of us. I don't see what credit we can
actually take -- we are riding in Tolkien's and Peter Jackson's chariot."
McKellen rides on Tolkein's chariot
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/031222/325/ehm43.html |