Tony Award-winning acting legend Ian McKellen has wowed audiences on screens and on stage even long before he became a pop culture sensation as Magneto in the X-Men films and Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films. And more than 20 years after he appeared in the first installments of those beloved franchises, McKellen continues to act, such as The Critic, a 2023 film in which he portrays a hard-to-please theater critic. Speaking about the film to Variety, McKellen also opened up about his approach to acting, including noting the worst experience he ever had making a film, as well as his thoughts on never retiring.
Despite often being thought of as a classically-trained actor because of his Shakespearean and stage work, McKellen did not attend acting school. He remarks, “I’ve never learned Meisner or any technique of acting. I didn’t go to drama school. I’ve often wished that I did have a foolproof approach to how to prepare. Each play or movie stands by itself for me. And every time I begin with this terror of just ‘Here we go again, making the same mistakes.’”
“I’ve never learned Meisner or any technique of acting. I didn’t go to drama school. I’ve often wished that I did have a foolproof approach to how to prepare. Each play or movie stands by itself for me. And every time I begin with this terror of just ‘Here we go again, making the same mistakes.’”
Instead, McKellen credits good direction for helping guide him after he has taken the time to absorb the text. He explains, “I’m very dependent on someone from the outside saying, ‘This is what I’m receiving from you.’ I would define a good director as an honest one who says, ‘Look, this is mostly not working. But, Ian, at that moment where you decided not to sit down, you were absolutely the character.’ If I can then remember that moment and what it felt like and how my body was positioned, I can take advantage of that sensation. Then it starts to spread throughout my DNA.”
For an example of when that direction isn’t properly helping, McKellen points to Michael Mann’s 1983 horror film The Keep, which McKellen says represented his worst filmmaking experience. He remembers, “Michael Mann said to me, ‘You’re playing this Romanian.’ So I went to Romania to scout it out, and I learned how to speak with a Romanian accent. Then on the first day of shooting, Michael told me he wanted me to speak with a Chicago accent. Well, I couldn’t do that, and it got worse from there.”
Though McKellen will turn 85 next year, he admits that he does not plan on ever stepping away from acting as long as his health allows him to continue doing what he loves. He shares, “I’ve never been out of work, but I’m aware that any minute now something could happen to me which could prevent me from ever working again. But while the knees hold up and the memory remains intact, why shouldn’t I carry on? I really feel I’m quite good at this acting thing now.”
