PLUME: If you were to look around and take stock right now, would you say that you were happy with where you’re going?
McKELLEN: Yeah, I’m about half-way up, I would think.
PLUME: And no idea if there’s another mountain beyond that…
McKELLEN: Who knows! It’s thrilling. I’ve gotten myself into a situation – mainly by luck, but also by a lot of hard work – where I can choose the company I keep and the work that I do. The judgement I usually make is “Is this a story worth telling?” and if I’m not entirely sure I can do it, and I ask the director, “Can I do it?” – and, of course, he’s going to say “Yes”, or else I wouldn’t have been cast – well, then, on we go. You ask anyone who’s running any sort of race or playing any sort of match or doing any sort of athletic enterprise – they’re not certain they can do it. That’s why they’re doing it… To prove that they can. But they don’t know, do they, until they hit the tape or get to the top.
PLUME: Do you have any aspirations beyond acting?
McKELLEN: No…
PLUME: Or is this what your happiest doing?
McKELLEN: Within my own life outside acting, yes. I don’t want to become a politician or – even within the business – I don’t want to be a director. I’ve tried that , and I’m no good at it. There are too many opportunities, fortunately, for me. If I wasn’t allowed to make films for some reason, there’s the theater – and vice-versa. If I lost a leg and couldn’t walk, I could always do radio. Fortunately, there’s a lot of areas in which people can act. I think I might like to get more involved with young actors who are learning how to do it – not because I think I know how they should do it, but I’d like to see how they do it. I do like the company of young people, and I don’t want to get old in the sense of, “I know how it’s done. Things aren’t as good as they used to be…”
PLUME: You don’t want to be isolationist…
McKELLEN: No, not at all. Of course, that’s another wonderful thing about acting – when you’re on the journey, there are likely to be people who are older than you and younger than you and encounter different experiences and different nationalities. It’s a very, very, very privileged way of life, because it’s so fulfilling.
PLUME: Do you see a time when you’ll actively withdraw from the business, say along the lines of Alec Guinness?
McKELLEN: He’s much older than I am… I don’t know. Energies can run out in your 80’s, obviously – though John Gielgud changed his agent the year before he died. Last year, for instance, after I did a very hard spell of theater – I did 3 plays, one after the other in a regional company in the UK – and I said to myself, “For the rest of the century – for the rest of 1999 – I’m not going to work unless a wonderful film part comes up, and if it doesn’t, I’m not going to worry.” That meant that I didn’t work for 7 months – until I did X-Men. It was almost shocking, what a good time I had.
PLUME: Was it reinvigorating?
McKELLEN: Yes. I did quite a lot of traveling, I was with friends, and did enjoy – I must say – not having to get up early to go to work and not having to go out in the evening to work, as you have to do in theater. I was able to have a drink when I wanted, to eat when I wanted, and if I fancied to suddenly to go off for a weekend somewhere or other, I did. I got a hint of what I’ve missed in my life, because I have worked pretty well non-stop.
PLUME: So you found the joy of “The Sabbatical”…
McKELLEN: Yeah.
PLUME: Do you find it nice to be at a point in your career where you can go off and do that, and know that your career will still be waiting for you when you come back?
McKELLEN: Yes… Absolutely.
PLUME: It’s not something that’s afforded to many actors…
McKELLEN: No, it isn’t.
PLUME: I want to touch on a couple of your films now, so – if you could – give me your recollections and experiences of working on the them… We’ll start with Richard III…
McKELLEN: Well, I’ve written a book about it, you know… It’s the screenplay, and it’s got an extensive introduction and notes explaining why we did what we did with every cut and every scene. It’s available through my website. Richard III was immensely satisfying, because it was my own idea. We’d played it for two years in the theater – on and off, and across the world – and I knew it was a very popular version of the play with audiences. I thought that the production would transfer very well to film, so I wrote the screenplay. Then I had to get it made. When the first day of shooting came and after all the desperate work – over 3 years, during which time I’d just been doing these other films I was talking about – I saw Annette Bening in costume, two mighty trains that used to belong to Adolf Hitler puffing steam, 50 horses and wranglers, a few dogs… and there I was in my uniform surrounded by a hundred extras and technicians and the sun was shining, and it was all because I said to myself one day, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to make a film.” As you can imagine, that felt good.
PLUME: Next… God and Monsters…
McKELLEN: I don’t think any work has been closer to myself than that film was, at the point in which I made it. It was not just a leading part in a Hollywood movie, but it was a group of independent filmmakers who I found very congenial, in that their aspirations for their work are very much what mine are. The fact that the leading part was a gay man, and an Englishman once more – and yet it was about Hollywood. It was about what it’s like to be involved in my industry – and the man had been an actor most of his life before he became a director, and had an actor’s temperament and an actor’s self-regard and awareness. Everything just came together beautifully. Although it was a very short shoot – four weeks – there was nothing wrong with anything…. The script, the director, the crew, the cast. Then, when people said they liked it, and I got something like 15 best-acting awards for it. That what I knew was good and had been done exactly the way that I’ve been describing and it worked – the satisfaction was total, really. I don’t despair, but it’s unlikely that will ever happen again.
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