Besties Ian McKellen & Patrick Stewart on Envy, "Star Trek" Costumes & the 'Gandalf Face'

well here we are on Broadway calm I'm Ian McKellen and I'm Patrick Stewart and I have a question for Sir Patrick from Amelia when did you first meet in mcallen and what was your impression of him I must have met Ian McKellen in the green room which was served as a cafe at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in stratford-on-avon we were both in the company but not in the same place that's correct and I was far too shy to speak with him so I guess I didn't actually meet him but I observed him from afar and was impressed well that's an exciting revelation because I don't remember you looking at me in their canteen well I did it surreptitiously as I was probably looking at Roger resource yeah very likely with good cause with good boy from Alex for you I expected you to play Hearst in no-man's land that's the role that I play was that ever under consideration or did you always know you'd be playing Spooner I can't really tell you but I suspect it was decided quite early on with consult Arkans consultation but the Shawn the FASFA tablets have his views on that it just seems to be right I mean I can't imagine anybody now playing a Hearst other than you and I think I could have had a crack at it but that's all I couldn't have done it I couldn't have done it I think the data could be said of both of us we could have had a crack at the other role but I think I'm going to add in this moment modestly take credit for your playing Spooner because when we shared a dressing on for 22 weeks I as I got to know you so well I knew that you were the actor who was born to play the part of Spooner so when we talked about the play for me there was never ever because I'm a grief no because you're witty and urbane and you're fabulous with language and and you have a twinkle about you all of these things at present in Spooner well this is from Erin oh good what do you have to say to people who think they're coming to see jean-luc Picard and Gandalf when they come to see no man's land already forgotten in the early days of my being on Broadway which was when I was doing my one-man show the Christmas carol show there were audience members who would show up in costume that is wearing Star Trek unified and with the support of the do world I think there was a little disappointment that they were not seeing something more Star Trek related and said they were getting Charles Dickens but I made such a fuss about that the costumes are disappeared you haven't seen one since we've been at the core you know master I frankly I don't care why they come if they want to come and see Gandalf or Charles Xavier or Captain Picard that's fine or Magneto let's just get them in the seats and then leave it up to us to entertain them which i think we do here reasonably well in our two shows and and I would say that Star Trek and tolki and not your run-of-the-mill popular entertainment there they write an audience to it to think and be intrigued and and to be happy to be excited and entertained at that level and those are the sort of people who like going to the theater I find it because they haven't been to the theater before that and doesn't mean to say they're not going to enjoy it and I agree with you I've got another question for you this is from Sarah yeah is it common for people to tell you they don't understand these two plays Waiting for Godot in no man's land and what do you say should that come up hmm I say I'm a lot of sympathy because first came across waiting forgot her but it was first done in England and also low muslin I didn't think much of either play although I enjoyed the performance and I wasn't I wasn't intrigued enough to to go and see either put that the place again in other versions and how foolish I was because now we worked I say to folks I don't find anything difficult about these plays I know exactly what they're about and I can tell you if you want and I think sometimes think there should be a disclaimer in the play ball or outside this theater thing these plays are not to be understood there they are not carrying a message if you don't know what's going on that doesn't mean to say the play hasn't been working it has if if you understand that these are real people in situations from them which are very real but which they don't necessarily explain much about to the audience you are an observer and it seems being must be of a modest that they wouldn't find these plays very very funny now I tell you no one can find something funny if they don't know what's going on you have to be able to understand and the same had been moved by the players in there and they're moving to but they're not fantasies it's not all happening inside someone's head all the characters aren't the same character they're there they have relatively real people and they have real problems some of them can't remember very clearly and some of them drink too much and something keep falling over and some have bad feet one's got prostate problems and you know what's difficult about this that's life yes just recall that remember that it's life and it's not about existentialism no all the meaning of life or does God exist no um you have a question for me what it's in what way says Laura are you and we envious of each other and gone well I saw the question I was looking over your shoulders Oh Sandra so I already had a prepared answer tell me um two ways Ian knows and he thinks I'm foolish to feel this way but I envy your your university education acrostic um Ian went to Cambridge and I my formal school he ended when I was fifteen I am with that but I also envy your head of hair if only because in the two plays you don't wear a wig and yet you manage to make your hairstyle look completely different just with the aid of a little tail comb and a bit of a lower eye and with that whereas I have to stick on a wig for as you look gorgeous in it and without it thank you what do I have in me I'm not very good at envy actually if someone's got good qualities and you have many I'm really glad for them that was thick Oh they'd be better if they gave what those causes to me well I do envy you being married to sunny Iselle well that was if you were going to run out of something to say I was going to suggest that as a possibility from Oscar what was it like returning to playing Gandalf so many years later what does it mean well I suppose there were thirteen years between the beginning of the shoot for Lord the Rings and the beginning of the shoot for the Hobbit trilogy however in the intervening years that players had been coming out piecemeal I was signing my image as Gandalf on a number of occasions and I was waiting to hear whether the Hobbit going to med so it was always a part of my life getting back in to catch I'm afraid was no more difficult than I mean the beard applied moustache the eyebrows ricky hatton there yeah there he is I can see him I just have got a bit like that when I do it yes no you but no as you were doing that you became him that was the Gandalf face which I only know from Gandalf not from you Eddie wants to know what was the most difficult thing about being an actor in the Star Trek universe did your Shakespeare and training help you absolutely Erik very cute is and Eddie absolutely Eddie it's helped me in that Star Trek dialog is somewhat heightened dialogue I can always recognize it just by hearing it it sounds like Star Trek and we know that Shakespeare's dialogue and language was heightened some it was verse some not but there's another very good reason there are no pockets in Star Trek uniforms there are no pockets in Elizabethan tights suppose we know codes of any kind and so as Captain Picard I was the one member of the cast and crew who knew what to do with his hands which of course is nothing X the times after doing the play this many times do you think God actually exists release he certainly exists he's a farmer he has goats sheep and he doesn't treat his employees very well they have to steep and then a hayloft and they get beaten at least one of them does and he doesn't keep his appointments it's a thong the unreliable person and Becket doesn't want you to be interested in whatsoever but he exists in one day one day I have a feeling that answer is going to follow you for the rest of your life no it was an excellent answer I agree with every word you said but I think people say Ian McKellan said that first off happy nice to meet you and you too I've enjoyed this was good luck with everything good luck tonight in your performance thank you very much I'm looking forward to it and you too you're interested all your future endeavors you

Channel: Broadwaycom

Views: 1,343,466

Rating: 4.950048 out of 5

Keywords: Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, No Man's Land, Waiting For Godot, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, X-Men

Id: wJmdE0G4sEg

Length: 11min 2sec (662 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 06 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/Atomm]

So grab the edge of your shirt and pull down. Got it.

[u/omrog]

Stewart is also capable of sitting down properly, which already puts him ahead of Jonathan Frakes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVIGhYMwRgs

[u/Librarianavenger]

Going out on a limb here, but I'd say that wasn't the only advantage his RSC background gave him over his colleagues.

[u/Floppserl]

Classy Picard masters it all.

[u/singularineet]

TLDR: No pocket pool in the 25th century.