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Tolkien, Hamlet and the wonderful image. “I'm glad Gandalf appeared in my career”
He conquered the world as Gandalf, although his achievements were already marked in the history of British culture. As an actor and as an activist for LGBTQ+ rights. – It would be great to return to New Zealand, but I'm not looking forward to it, says Ian McKellen in an exclusive interview with tvn24.pl. The actor can be seen as a part of the limited screenings of Hamlet directed by Sean Mathias. – The idea of Hamlet was that Ian, who is eighty years old, will play the main role, – Mathias reveals.
Ian McKellen is a living legend – and that's no exaggeration. His life, artistic activity and social involvement are the source of several, if not more than a dozen, film and TV series and stage texts. The world recognized him as Gandalf in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy based on J.R. Tolkien loved. And he was the only person from the entire cast of this trilogy to receive an Oscar in the acting category. Interestingly, McKellen and Cate Blanchett are the only two actors to star in all six Tolkien adaptations directed by Jackson (The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy).
ALL PARTS OF THE “LORD OF THE RINGS” TRILOGY AND THE “HOBBIT” TRILOGY ON THE MAX PLATFORM >>>
There are many indications that McKellen will be playing Gandalf again after a hiatus of more than 10 years. In May of this year, the studio Warner Bros. (part of the Warner Bros. Discovery group, which also owns tvn24.pl) announced that work on two more films in the “Lord of the Rings” series had begun, with the producers of the original trilogy, Peter Jackson, Fran included. Welles and Philip Boyens (Oscar winner for the screenplay for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King). Whether McKellen will actually appear on the big screen as Gandalf remains to be seen in the coming months.
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Ian McKellen as the wizard GandalfWarner Bros
However, Gandalf is only one of the many threads in the biography of McKellen, who for decades has been considered the great heir to Laurence Olivier – one of the greatest British actors in history. He began his acting career at the age of 9, appearing in school plays, including: by his older sister Jean. He loved the stage from the bottom of his heart, especially Shakespeare's repertoire. In 1958, 18-year-old Ian McKellen won a prestigious scholarship to St. Louis. Catharine College, University of Cambridge. Over the next three years, McKellen appeared in 23 plays. It was during this period – despite his young age – he had the opportunity to work with the leading directors of the theaters of that time, which greatly influenced his future career.
His breakthrough was the lead role in Richard Cottrell's Shakespeare play Richard II in 1969. In the mid-1970s, he was already one of the most respected actors of the theater. He then decided to conquer Broadway and Hollywood in New York, while at the same time creating unforgettable roles in the British theater, mainly from Shakespeare's repertoire. Bottom Line: McKellen, in particular, graced Broadway with his portrayal of Salieri in Amadeus, for which he won a Tony – the US theatrical equivalent of an Oscar. His film career gained momentum in the 1990s.
McKellen is not only a titan of contemporary theater, film and television. In the late 1980s, as an almost 50-year-old star of world theater and cinema, he openly announced that he was gay in one of his radio programs. Although the issue of his psychotic tendencies was not a secret around him, he was never open about it and explained that he had no desire to enter politics. When Margaret Thatcher's government passed a law called Section 28, she overturned a decision that required local authorities in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to introduce bans on homosexuality advertising and show a welcoming attitude towards homosexuality. legislators think so. a threat to the traditional family. Interestingly, years later Thatcher admitted that one of the last things she did as British Prime Minister was to recommend McKellen for a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth, which happened in 1991.
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