Sir Ian McKellen’s cinematic tenure has been filled with astounding accolades complementing his illustrious career spanning more than seven decades. The English actor has experienced it all, from how the theaters have evolved to the rapid changes in cinema, it’s magical.
In his profound and glorious career, especially in cinema, his debut in Peter Jackson’s ambitious The Lord of The Rings franchise as Gandalf and Erik Lehnsherr a.k.a. Magneto in MCU has lived the glory of immense fandom. Still, playing Gandalf was not what he expected.
Gandalf Tested The Patience of Sir Ian McKellen
Be it The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit Trilogy, Peter Jackson’s movie series have taken the world by storm. The franchises have been the marvel of cinema comprising grand narratives and epic storytelling. However, Sir Ian McKellen who played Gandalf— a wizard and the leader of the Fellowship of the Ring— was tormented by the role for a reason.
While he experienced much of the cinematic advancement in terms of technology and the very idea of making films with his X-Men role, Gandalf pushed him to the edge of regret. In his 2007 documentary, McKellen: Playing the Part helmed by Joe A. Stephenson, the veteran actor revealed his experience of working in Jackson’s movies.
“In the theater it’s all pretend, cardboard and canvas. You make believe nothing is as it seems,” McKellen said comparing his cinematic role to theaters (via Ars Technica).
“But on scene, there it is. One day, we were lifted in a helicopter, dropped onto a high, snow-covered ridge, and then abandoned and filmed by the helicopter. It could only happen once because we would’ve left our footprints in the snow if we go longer. There’s a perilous drop on one side and the peak on the other, I could be on Everest… it’s as far from a green screen as you can get; it’s bliss.”
Yes, modern films with inherent VFX requirements must be filmed into an ocean of the green screen. While McKellen accepted it to be a marvel of filmmaking, he realized the cons of it for obvious reasons.
Sir Ian McKellen Almost Lost The Appetite To Play Gandalf
Gandalf is one of the most iconic and celebrated characters not just in the history of cinema but also among the readers of the original books by J. R. R. Tolkien on which the Jackson blockbusters were based. Still, while filming, McKellen almost lost the appetite to play Gandalf due to the mechanical atmosphere on the set. He felt the loss of very emotional relationships between actors as he was deprived of his castmates while filming some of the scenes in The Hobbits as they were replaced by mechanical robots as stand-ins.
“Where should I look? Well, they put photos of each of the actors on a stand, and whoever was talking, their light flashed. These were photos of the actors, not the characters I just met. At the end of the day, my mouth was very close to the mic hidden in my forest of a beard, and I said to myself, ‘This is not why I became an actor.’ I was quite tearful… but this was accidentally broadcast across the studio,” he said in his documentary (via Ars Technica).
Regardless, McKellen, who would always prefer live theater over cinematic roles, has experienced the different traits of roles he played over the years. The Hobbit trilogy was a massive success as it went on to gross over $2.938 billion (per The Numbers) at the box office while being the critical darling at the same time.
