Sir Ian McKellen holds up his right arm to show a red sore spot, then taps the top of his spine. “I fractured my wrist, which is getting better. I chipped my vertebrae up here, which seems to be OK,” he says.
On 17 June, he fell from the stage of the Noël Coward Theatre in the middle of a performance of Player Kings, a condensed version of Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 (still lasting well over three hours) where he was starring as Falstaff. During a fight scene, McKellen caught his foot on a chair, lost balance and landed heavily on the front row.
The news was met with widespread concern and an outpouring of good wishes befitting a beloved national treasure.
“I feel like a man who’s read his own obituaries – and like most obituaries, they were over-kind,” McKellen smiles.
Via videocall with Big Issue from his home, McKellen is keen to reassure people that he is on the mend.
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“I’m fine, I’m fine. I’m very well looked after by close friends who live next door and do my shopping and cooking, because I couldn’t use this hand for the simplest of baking, but that’s coming back now.
“I’m left feeling weak physically, which I’m doing exercises for. And, of course, it’s emotional. We all trip all our lives, it’s just when you get to my age you can’t always get up again.
At 85, Burnley-born Ian McKellen looks fit in a casual t-shirt, unshaven, hair wispy. He sounds like his warm, animated and thoughtful self, his voice squeezing the richness out of every syllable. There is only a faint flicker of frailty, like when he wonders whether the fall was caused by old age.
“I’m just trying to convince myself it was an accident,” he says.
Ian McKellen taking a bow with Richard Coyle and Toheeb Jimoh, co-stars in Player Kings at the Noël Coward Theatre, in April this year. Image: Hoda Davaine / Dave Benett / Getty Images
His injuries would have been more severe had he not been cushioned by a fat suit he was wearing for the role. Largely housebound while recovering, McKellen has been trying to learn how to pass the time.
“I’m usually working or preparing to work, I’ve been doing a little bit of that, wondering what might be the best plan. I’m going to take the rest of the year off. Not because I need to, just because I want to.”
It will be the first pause in decades. McKellen’s career has been prolific and hugely varied. He’s as likely to pop up in Hollywood blockbusters as he is to appear on the cobbles of Corrie (a 10-episode stint in 2005) or play a panto dame (most recently the 2022-23 season as Mother Goose).
He is just as tireless offstage as a gay rights activist. Co-founder of Stonewall in the UK, he has been key in getting governments to pass more progressive policies. His interest in social causes and drive is undiminished.
“Work is not to me a dirty word, because my work has always seemed like play. I’m lucky very early on in my life to have discovered the joy of acting and still be able to do it. It’s when the knees and the memory give way that it gets problematic but…” He tries to cross hisfingers to bring continued luck; “I can’t quite…” He forces his fingers into position with the other hand, then laughs, “That’s a bad sign, isn’t it?!”
I’ll cross mine for you, I say.
“Thank you very much.”
Sir Ian McKellen with Alfred Enoch in The Critic. Image: Sean Gleason
His latest film is released this month. The Critic is set in 1930s London with Ian McKellen playing Jimmy Erskine, a caustic theatre writer whose poisonous putdowns spiral into a devious plot of blackmail and murder.
“It’s a rattling good tale and a wonderful character,” McKellen says. “Yes, he’s a bit of a villain but like many villains he’s very attractive.”
Regarding his own views towards critics, McKellen says he’s not bothered by bad reviews because “actors spend their whole lives being criticised in rehearsal”.
“It’s all about: ‘Why don’t you try this? Wouldn’t this be better?’ So when a critic comes along, having seen your performance once, their advice is likely to be less impressive than from the director – or oneself.”
Ian McKellen lists a stellar lineup of directors whom he’s had the honour of working with on stage: Tyrone Guthrie, Trevor Nunn, Richard Eyre, Ronald Eyre, Sean Mathias, and Robert Icke on Player Kings.
“There are some actors who can’t stand directors. I love them – if they’re really good!” he chuckles, “And I try to work with people who are.
“I said to Anand Tucker, our director on The Critic, what I’ve said to every film director I’ve worked with from Michael Mann to Peter Jackson: ‘Help me! I don’t know how to do it! Teach me how to act in front of the camera!’ Well, they never do – they’re too busy! I never had any training other than just slogging through a lot of films that no one’s ever seen and a few that have hit.”
Ian McKellen as Gandalf. Image: Collection Christophel / Alamy
It’s the Middle-earth wizard Gandalf that he thinks he’ll be remembered for.
“Enthusiasm for The Lord of the Rings shows no sign of abating,” he says before whispering, “I may even be going back to play Gandalf again…”
A new set of films that will focus on Gollum, directed by Andy Serkis, have been announced. Tell me more, I whisper back.
“I can’t tell you any more than that. I’ve just been told there are going to be more films and Gandalf will be involved and they hope that I’ll be playing him. When? I don’t know. What the script is? It’s not written yet. So they better be quick!
The turbulent times of The Critic’s pre-war setting has parallels with today: a resurgence of the right; prejudiced voices with a growing platform. Erskine’s “proclivities” make him a target for the fascist blackshirts on patrol. Toxicity then as now has real-world consequences, as we saw during recent riots in the UK.
“It’s a bewilderment as to how those demonstrators could get it so wrong,” McKellen says. “I take the notion that their lives are unhappy, there’s a frustration. They don’t seem to be able to improve their lives therefore they take it out on others who they like to think are responsible for their own misfortunes. That would be a kind way of looking at it. But their behaviour was intolerable. I thought the new government immediately putting it in terms of legality and illegality was the right thing to do. They broke the law and they had no excuse.
“There’s never any excuse for violence in my view,” he continues. “It’s one of the things I can be proudest of with the gay rights movement in this country. My god did we have an excuse to express our rage at other people’s behaviour towards us but not a brick was thrown. I think that says quite a lot about not just gay people, but Britain as a whole. We don’t think violence is the way to solve anything.”
Ian McKellen marching with Stonewall at Pride, London, in 2014. Image: Paul Brown / Alamy
Although bigoted voices are noisier than ever, does the country feel a more progressive place than it did in the past?
“As a gay man, I’d have to say, yes, it’s got better. The acceptance of gay people in our society from top to bottom is not just a fact of life – it always was – but gays are now firmly entrenched in the fabric of society in an open way. Our colour can be seen sparkling through the tapestry. There is still deep-seated homophobia among some who should know better but every gay marriage that takes place affects so many people that I think the likelihood we’d go backwards is not likely. But that’s just on that issue.”
Now there are fresh targets for hate. Ian McKellen, who part owns a pub on the Thames called The Grapes, has a unique perspective on how public discourse and debate has shifted.
The Grapes pub in Limehouse has Gandalf ’s staff behind the bar
“Much of this disaffection has probably always been there but it’s been restricted until pretty recently to the saloon bar of the pub,” he says. “People have had a few drinks and use words they perhaps wouldn’t use in public, ‘You know what’s wrong with this country?’ Well, that’s all right in the pub, have a bicker about it. Social media – you’d think it would make us all more democratic – but when people use the freedom to be heard to make other people’s lives miserable, I don’t get it. SHUT UP! Isn’t that how you sometimes feel in a pub, ‘Oh just shut up!’”
Do you sometimes have to shout that at people in The Grapes?
“Oh, we never have any problems in The Grapes. We’re all very friendly. The only arguments are as to whether the answer to the quiz question that we got wrong is the correct one.”
It’s education that McKellen believes is the biggest issue of all. A few years ago, he toured dozens of schools across the country campaigning against homophobia.
“I didn’t go to one that I didn’t think was run and nurtured by teachers and governors who were enslaved by their joy and responsibility to help kids. They need our support. The idea that there are kids who arrive at school hungry…
“I’m the last of the lucky generation – I mean that. Going to Cambridge on a scholarship. A scholarship! A state scholarship! And then when I was there, allowed not to do any work! Someone knew better, you see. You send a boy to Cambridge, it doesn’t really matter if he doesn’t have a good degree by the end of it if in the meantime he’s been learning how to act.
“My little contribution to society these days is to make sure that every show I’m in plays outside London for a good spell, if not in its entirety. That’s my contribution to levelling up!”
Ian McKellen in Hamlet for Prospect Theatre in 1971, with Susan Fleetwood as Ophelia. Image: Donald Cooper / Alamy
To celebrate his 80th birthday, McKellen took a one-man show to 87 venues, from Orkney to Exeter.
“That was a wonderful job. And I discovered what I’d always really known, that audiences aren’t that different. Now, that’s not a reliable poll because I’m judging on the people who came to see me on the one night I was in the town, but it’s nice that in certain areas of life, like laughing at it, it might feel that we belong to the same country.”
Mother Goose in 2022. Image: David M. Benett / Alan Chapman / Dave Benett / Getty Images
He’s watched more TV than usual, and says the highlight was the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
“Though we’re not Americans, we have a right to be interested and concerned. It’s not an internal affair. The president in the United States can be a force for good and not good.
“One impressive message to come out of Chicago has been saying we must listen to each other. Nothing wrong with having a good argument but let’s hear what the disagreements are. You discover that your differences may be huge but actually there are a lot of similarities that bring people together.”
So are you backing Kamala Harris?
“There’s no choice, is there? Oh dear, Trump is so blatantly what he is. Which is slightly reassuring. Other wicked politicians have disguised themselves, it’s all on display with Trump: his prejudices, his ignorance, his stupidity, his incompetence, his lack of experience in matters that matter.”
Jimmy Erskine in The Critic declares: “The theatre is eternal. It matters more than politics, more than society – it is life!” McKellen agrees.
“Not having children, I can measure the past not in terms of them growing up and marks of their height on the wall, but by the work I’ve done. I do often look back because it’s a journey I’ve been on, accompanied by a lot of dear, dear friends. Theatre, rather than films or telly, has been the inspiration and the joy.”
Further roles will map the future too. There are still some Shakespearean characters to cross off the list: “Malvolio [Twelfth Night] or Antonio, the gay character who is the Merchant of Venice, but I would only want to do it in the company of people as excited as I would be about doing it. I’m looking forward to being back working. I’ve always felt a bit nervous finishing one job if I didn’t have an idea about what the next might be. I enjoy acting. I enjoy working with other people and solving problems together. I love to meet an audience.
“I know by this time I’m at least very experienced at the job, and I’m still trying to get better at it. Those are the motives that make work for me not just enjoyable, but essential.”
The Critic is released in cinemas on 13 September.
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