by Paul Fischer
by
Paul Fischer
Sir Ian McKellen seemed
a bit exasperated when, interviewed by a representative of 
some religious
press, they suggested that his Gandalf was akin to a Messianic saviour. The
openly gay actor clearly disagreed with such an analogy. "Well
I certainly wasn't the Saviour. What I liked about Hobbits was that it was
the perfect community but it didn't have a church. There is no God in Lord
of the Rings, no Pope, no bishop, no credo, or no one telling you what to do." McKellen
dismisses any religious undertones of the character, pure and simple. "Gandalf
just says all we have to do is do what we can do in the time that we've got
which is the closest that you get to a belief system."
It's been four years since the 65-year old actor began his journey to New Zealand playing the enigmatic Gandalf in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Dying for a cigarette, but still relaxed and in droll spirits, McKellen has mixed feelings as to the final demise of this epic undertaking. Asked whether he will miss Gandalf, the actor smiles slightly, referring to his beloved character as "Randy Gandy". McKellen says he hasn't as yet had time to miss Gandalf. "The last bits of Gandalf I did was adding the last final grunts for a battle, which was only 3 weeks ago. I don't have to keep thinking about him because his image is everywhere." McKellen's been busy since completing principle photography. "I've done a play on Broadway, then the West End and I've made 2 movies, so it's not as if it's been an ongoing obsession -- in the way it has been for the director and even the [WETA effects] workshops."
Obsession or not, McKellen still took a lot away from working on Rings, he says, including "a confirmation that I like working with other people. I think people's image of actors is that they are selfish, egotistical, self-obsessed and surround themselves with support systems to boost their ego. Now those things may go on but, actually, most of the time what is going on is that you are accommodating other people and working with a team -- a fellowship, if you like -- and therefore your relationships become more intense and more meaningful. Alongside that was the experience of living in a country that I didn't know, New Zealand, and falling in love with every single aspect of it."
McKellen is looking forward to returning to the stage in January, for an Australian production of his Broadway hit The Dance of Death. It is clear that McKellen loves acting and the sheer diversity that has been a part of his career since the beginning. "In the nineteenth century actors had a repertoire of parts, which were very often way past the sell by date. You shouldn't play Hamlet when you're 60, I don't think, but I've revived Macbeth over and over again and went around the world with Richard the Third and filmed it. I did The Dance Of Death on Broadway. We did it in London with another cast, and it got better and deeper. It's one of the great parts which I don't think I've cracked yet, so maybe I'll be cracking it in Sydney."
As for an X-Men 3, McKellen is hopeful for a return
to the franchise. "Bryan Singer said in an email that if there was a
third one that he would like to direct it. .. And if he directs it he'd like
Magneto to be in it . . . But he did
n't say he was going ask me to play him.
It could be about a younger Magneto, since those X-men stories go forward
and backward in time."
Unfortunately, what is not going to happen is McKellen starring opposite Al Pacino in a film version of The Merchant of Venice. He was committed to playing Antonio, but constant delays meant he had to pull out. "I've got very few ambitions and one is to play Antonio, Shakespeare's major openly gay character who says 'Sooth I know not why I'm so sad' but everyone else knows why he's sad: His boyfriend has just told him he's going to get married, which is what that is all about. But you don't see it played like that and at last I was going to get to play it on film. My loss is Jeremy Irons' gain."
Asked if after 40 years, there was still another character he wants to play, McKellen responds smilingly. "I want to play a dame in pantomime, which is the first thing that British kids see in the theatre when they are very, very young. It's full of dance, song and poetry, has a simple story, audience participation and cross dressing. The principle boy is played by a girl and the mother, the comic dame, is always played by a man, which is why the British love the theatre so much, because they get it all, like a Christmas pudding. But mind you, I think pantomime confuses them as well, so next Christmas I'm going to play a dame in Aladdin," McKellen says with a hearty laugh.
Ian McKellen considers himself to be an incredibly lucky gay actor who, in this conservative world of political correctness, is more than able to express his views on homosexuality in this, or any other forum. . . though he won't be drawn on the cutest male actors with whom he has worked. "Ah yes, I don't really label people in that way but I suppose I got closest to Brendan Fraser yet I was also very touched by Brad Renfro, whom I thought had a wonderful spirit, a hard life and really wish him so much good luck. Robert Downey, who I worked with in Restoration and Richard the Third, is one of the most beautiful men that I know, physically and spiritually and I've always wished him the best . And now here we are with this gaggle of beauties in Lord of the Rings who were all delightful. I woke up on the New Zealand flight, took a sleeping pill, went to sleep then woke up in the same room on this flight as Orlando Bloom, Liv Tyler, Elijah Wood and Viggo Mortensen and I thought 'Wow, aren't I the luckiest man in the world?' "
