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This
interview with Sir Ian McKellan would have to be one of the highlights of
my afternoon. Sir Ian was not only very pleasant and thoughtful during the
interview, but with his humour, he brought a sense of ease to the room, and
you could not help but have a good time! We are grateful to have had this
opportunity, and I hope that you enjoy this interview at least half as much
as I did doing it!
Now, without further ado, may I present...Sir Ian McKellan!
So in this one it seems that Gandalf is very...almost dour…he is, as if feeling that this might turn out not as the audience might have hoped, his optimism is much more dour in this one.
I think that tension of “Will it work out? Will Frodo make it?” and Gandalf's worry, and, perhaps, guilt, about whether he had chosen the right person, was something that Peter wanted to very much bring into the story, and the pick-ups that we did this year were all about that…my pick-ups. So yeah…that is, I suppose, part of Gandalf's story, and it's part of Frodo's story.
But it also turns, when his says “Hope is kindled,” that, all of a sudden, he realises “Hey, we may be able to pull this off” right?
Well I…you know, I suppose, Alec Amanser has dreadful, dreadful days when it looks as if it's not gonna work, of course he doesn't come out and tell the press that. Reading behind the lines in the Middle East at the moment, you just wonder what's going on in the White House today…
How personally satisfying has this whole experience been for you, doing these movies?
Well, I'd have to say it was one of the best things, from a number of points of view, I'd ever gotten involved with. I'm sure the other actors will have told you what they think about New Zealand…which is a remarkable place…its beauty, and its attitudes…social attitudes, they view it as a sort of primitive UK, stuck in the 1950's, which coudn't be further from the truth..I mean socially…they've just made prostitution legal now…for both genders…there's seven openly gay members of parliament…there's a transsexual member of parliament, there's rastafarian pot-smoking member of parliament. Every major position in New Zealand is held by a woman. It ain't backward…it's right there in advance, so you know we should all go to people, “What's New Zealand doing?” and we'll be doing it next, is what I feel, and it's so contained, and 3% of the entire population of New Zealand was on the streets in Wellington, so that's how we all got involved, I mean we all fell in love, and were loved back. Now that's…apart…from the work, which, in itself, was extremely satisfying, and I'm fascinated to be at close quarters with this mighty enterprise…oh, I don't know…I'm genuinely modest about my contribution, because it was just one of thousands of contributions all held together by Peter, so the job itself was rewarding, the experience was rewarding…of being in New Zealand, and then, on top of that, the overwhelming reaction it produced there, and the popularity of the films. I had a little bit of it with X-Men, I suppose, but uhmm, I don't know…it's too crude to say “Oh, I'm famous now,” but I am…I'm famous as the actor who played Gandalf, and that's a nice way…good heavens…you know… people don't come knocking on my door wanting to know things about my private life…if they meet me they want to talk about Gandalf.
How does that feel now to be known most for playing, you know, Gandalf, rather than all the other work that you've done? Does that bother you?
Well, it depends who you talk to. I mean, some people, like my sister, can't stand Lord of the Rings…she remembers me as Macbeth, but yes, I know what you mean, ehhhm…well I…nothing wrong with Gandalf…I mean, he's one of the great, great characters of my lifetime, and ummm, Magneto, too, is an iconic figure, but I'm always aware that it's…I'm riding in their chariots you know, I'm not uh…It's not me… it's the characters, and that's fine…that's what I enjoy about acting…is introducing characters to their audience.
So kind of like, maybe, most like Star Wars, maybe, there's gonna be a whole generation of kids that grow up with it, but, you know, and you have people like for Star Wars where Sir Alec Guiness, who became Obi Wan, and that became very fixed for a whole generation of kids…you don't mind that at all, if that happened to you with Gandalf?
Now don't forget who wrote Gandalf and who wrote…what's that character called…obi-wan da wa dadoobi?(laughter).... My lines were written by the one of the great writers of the twentieth century...I'm not complaining
Very good point…
For a returning character for one, you're doing Dance of Death again in…is it…Sydney?
Yes
What is it to keep doing that character, and just keep living and trying to find a new way of breathing life into that time and time again, like you had to do with coming back again and again…
A Well, Stringburg happens to be a complicated enough writer to merit revisiting, in my view, and I'm still confident that there's more to be discovered about how to do that play, and also, I'm thrilled to be, at last, performing in Australia…in Sydney…which is a great theatre town that I've not yet worked in.
Have you changed the role at all since the New York premiere?
Oh, considerably because it was recast…Helen Miren didn't want to do it again, so Francista McClure, who's one of the great British stage actresses, came in, and Owen Teal, Tony award winner, who came in as well, so we...I think we improved things to no end, and it's that version that's coming. Well, I love doing plays over a long period, and I suppose that's why I haven't found it a problem doing Gandalf over a long period. We keep going back, you know, each year, and doing a bit more…that's the way actors always did it in the past, they had repertoires…you know…you play Richard the Third all the way through your life until you are far too old…or Hamlet…well, I've been playing Dance of Death…I did Macbeth over about three years, I did Richard the Third over about four or five years, including the film, so this is all quite nice…I love going back, and getting it back.
Technically speaking, you play two Gandalfs…
I do…
…in these films. So is that a similar thing to adapting a character as you go?
Yes…yes…I suppose it is…it's all part of it, and so, I was proposed lucky to be playing two parts, but then Gimli and Treebeard are two parts, and Gollum plays two parts, so there's a bit of doubling in the movie.
How different are the two Gandalfs, in your opinion?
Well, they're the same…spirit… but it's different aspects of the spirit which are on display, and, ahhh…there's no doubt about it…you'd want to spend the evening with Gandalf the Grey wouldn't you? But, if you were in a fix, you might well need Gandalf the White.
You obviously love the books…you know…what scenes, if any, would you have done differently to bring it closer to what you've read, what you know Tolkien wrote?
Oh dear…I don't have any real regrets of that sort, because I met the books through the script, so, I went to the books to back up what the script said…well, of course then, my big discovery is that Gandalf never stops talking in the books… pages and pages he talks…so you go in to Peter and you say “Hey, look here…” So I would have liked a bit more... talking, because I think that's a characteristic of Gandalf…that he does talk…but he's a teacher, and he lectures people, and he reminds them, and tells them things they didn't know about the past. But, I guess Peter thought that that aspect of the character had to be curtailed somewhat…but that would be my one regret…that I think there is room for improvement, and maybe it will all turn up in the DVD, because there were some longer talking scenes, and I quite like talkies, you know…I like talkies in advance sometimes….
On that note, how much , or how little, of your own personality came through in your portrayal of Gandalf, and how much of him do you think you'll be taking with you, after it's all done?
Well, I don't think you can really act a part convincingly unless…it's a two way process…that the character inhabits you, and then you inhabit the character…you know…you have to find where you meet. But...imagination is involved, and I can imagine myself leading a lot of troops, although…I can only imagine myself doing that as Gandalf, I can't imagine Ian McKellan doing that, because that's the nature of acting, that you're using your imagination, and, I think where I'm most like Gandalf, so perhaps feel the strongest connection is in his sense of humour, and the fact that, as Gandalf the Grey, he likes not working…he's always ready for a drink and a chat…he even has a few party tricks ya know.
Is it hard to let go of a character sometimes, and do you ever get nostalgic for characters you've played, that you might want to re-visit?
I don't think you get nostalgic for the characters, but you get nostalgic for the circumstances in which you did them…where you were working. There's hardly a day I don't think about New Zealand…but plenty of days I don't think about Gandalf…and…jobs I've really enjoyed doing, say, the 1976 season at Stratford-on-Avon…when I did Macbeth , and Romeo and Juliet , and A Winter's Tale , and The Alchemist ….it was a golden summer…but I don't actually miss those characters.
What can you tell us...obviously, you were given many an offer after Lord of the Rings. What was it about the McGragh, the Asylum movie, that you said, “Okay, I want to take this on”?
It was a British movie, and I have slightly berated the British film industry for not having made Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. It's great British books, and who makes them? The Yanks! It makes sense to me…I mean, financially, I'm talking about…but now here's a British movie, meaning I can live at home or easily travel to work.
Editor's note:
My recorder ran out of disk space at this point. Sir Ian laughed about a few more reasons as to why it would be nice to work close to home, and then we were done. We thanked him for his time, and they ushered him away. Again, we'd like to thank Sir Ian for taking the time to sit down and talk with us.
Illu
Want to listen to the complete audio interview? Go here: Sir Ian McKellan 1.5MB MP3)
Interviews conducted by Illuvatar and other members of The Printed Press, at the Los Angeles Press Junket on December 3rd, 2003. We have 14 of these interviews to release and we'll try and bring you a few a week over the next few weeks, so keep an eye, or two if you can spare them, on the main page new for more soon! :-)
Special thanks to New Line Cinema and all the Cast & Crew for taking the time to sit down with us and provide these interviews. And a very, very special thanks to all of the War of the Ring staff that pitched in their personal time to do the transcriptions!
In Fellowship,
Illuvatar ~ Webmaster - War of the Ring.net
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