Ian McKellen on How He Became Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings | BAFTA Insights

it certainly proved to be in a wonderfully entertaining and successful franchise as has been the Lord of the Rings films and The Hobbit now in 2003 when that came into your life no one in Hollywood was expecting just how big that was going to become Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh maybe didn't have like the huger track record that would suggest it so how did they make you buy into their vision III had read The Hobbit when I was young but but I hadn't graduated on to the great book Lord of the Rings never worn the pin you know Gandalf the president which was the famous Lord of the Rings took off in America rather than England first and so they came around to my house like a couple of hobbits yeah but III I'm not sure that Peter Jackson was even wearing shoes he he never does in New Zealand and they sat myself in the service and designs they talked about the story and I'd rather grandly I said well let me read the script and I I wasn't I wasn't mad keen it was a year living in New Zealand the place had always wanted to visit I'd heard how beautiful it was the year away from home I'm a script that wasn't quite complete based on books that I didn't know about it wasn't the huge big chance of a lifetime but it turned out to be oh the number of stories involved in how I very nearly couldn't do it because initially I was asked by Tom Cruise to be in the Mission Impossible two and they would only show me a part of one sea I couldn't read the whole script in case I told people so I said I'm sorry I can't be in your film because I don't know what it is and my agent said you're turning down the chance to work with Tom Cruise I said well if it's a child when I did that movie delayed and delayed and delayed tony hopkins played my part and if I contract myself to do that I wouldn't have been able to do expand and I wouldn't have been able to do Lord of the Rings now I'd agreed to do two law x-men first with Brian and he told me that he states it's lit so that I now couldn't arrive in New Zealand on time to do ganda so I had to call up Peter Jackson say sorry I'm not doing it because I promised to work in the other film first he said well I keep it open for a bit and that night I was in chi-chi's restaurant in London having a fish supper and Bob Bob Shaye came in I didn't know he put his hands on my shoulder said looking forward to working with you now oh I said I'm sorry I'm not - I can't do it I've got to do extra myself leave it to me well and well an arrangement was made and Brian bless his heart Brian singer couldn't put it in writing but he said to me hand on heart I will make sure that you're ready if they can just slip that ace a little bit and they did and he finished me on time and I started with the first week of the millennium and talking about what he thought was going to happen with this huge project the internet had just been invented you could send emails to people you could access people's websites you could begin to communicate with people who you would never meet like-minded people and I used to send a regular diary from the set as did Peter and together we invented blocking graduation it had not been done before I called it he posts didn't catch on blocking and we got messages back saying that there were many many people who were very very keen on the idea this film as long as it was the film that they wanted to be made that it was going to be their middle-earth and of their world therefore they were constantly saying you are going to include soon so you're not going to cut out mumbled one of the characters there was some disapprove meant to be playing Gandalf because I was a gay man said to command I am Gandalf isn't interested in sex he's seven thousand years old we got the sense that there was an eager eager audience and much to the disapproval of the of the PR people of the studio under the radar who were Peter and I were contacting these people and keeping them sweet by the time the first film came out and we went back to New Zealand to do pickups on the second and then third films we knew there were millions of people who couldn't wait for the film so we had to come and it's a very very unusual situation to be it to be making a film that you know it's going to make an awful lot of money because the audience will definitely turn up to see it so it was it was all charming and it the stupid place to the set of all that which I was was strange strange feeling I still haven't quite gotten to Vila I don't feel I've can take any credit for the success of those films I did my part but of course it's the nature of films isn't it I mean of people responsible [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: BAFTA Guru

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Rating: 4.9501672 out of 5

Keywords: BAFTA Guru, ian mckellen, gandalf, lotr, career, film making, TV, gaming, actor, advice, movie, movies, movie making, BAFTA, sir ian mckellen, lord of the rings, British Academy Of Film And Television Arts (Award Presenting Organization), creative, the hobbit, lord of the rings series, x-men, magneto, professor x, peter jackson, bryan singer, theatre actor, acting, the da vinci code, mr holmes, sherlock holmes, beauty and the beast, king lear

Id: jSIO_hgVw8M

Length: 6min 38sec (398 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 01 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/SPP_TheChoiceForMe]

Ian McKellen's acting process

[u/Milk_Fart_Life]

Link to the blog posts he mentioned.

[u/bujweiser]

In an alternate reality, Ian McKellan's in a throwaway scene in Mission Impossible 2 and those people miss out on his Magneto and Gandalf.

[u/CaligulaAndHisHorse]

'He's not interested in sex, he's 7000 years old!'

[u/ezo88]

God bless Ian McKellen for being Gandalf, but he is not a story teller. That was painful to follow.