You mustn't upstage the bride.
— Ian Mckellen
To be allowed for the first time in your later career to play leading parts in extremely popular movies is not a situation to worry about.
I'm the sort of person who doesn't write in ink. I only write in pencil, so it can be rubbed out.
There are some tremendous actors in the U.K. who have been knighted, and I've spent much of my life admiring many of them, like Laurence Olivier. So it's very flattering to be in their company.
When I've been asked what should be on my gravestone, I've said: 'Here lies Gandalf. He came out.' Two big achievements.
The whole atmosphere of the book, the tone of 'The Hobbit,' is of a kid's adventure story, told in the first person by Tolkien, who is introducing young people to the notion of Middle-earth. A lot of it is very light-hearted.
In the past, kids didn't tell their parents they were gay, so there were never the bust-ups. Some parents react so strongly to the news that their children are gay that the reaction is, 'Get out of our house.' There's a residue of old prejudices that are going to die hard.
It's an interesting but useless bit of information that every single character in 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' wears a wig, and many of them wears a prosthetic - false ears, feet, hands. In my case, nose.
Magneto wants to cope with the difficulties thrust upon him by society and by his own nature.
I don't make any distinction between a popular TV series or blockbuster film and doing Shakespeare. They're different, but as long as the material is good and the intention is honourable, it's all the same to me.
When I was playing Gandalf, I didn't think, 'Oh my dear, I'm playing a 7,000 year old wizard,' because I've never met one, and I don't know what they're like.
I used to comfort myself when I became an actor that it was a useful job, entertaining people. And it was important to do it as well as you possibly can.
I don't any longer make any quality judgement between theater and cinema. They are different experiences for the audience, and they also are for the actors - although they have a lot in common.
Before I ever acted as an amateur - which I did a great deal at school and at university - I used to go to the theater with my parents in the north of England, where I was born and brought up... Theater of all sorts.
Why do you act? You act for an audience. In the theatre, you're in their presence. Film stars don't know what it is to have an audience.
I love working in New York.
You put anyone in the outfit, and they look like Gandalf. Not that clever.
Anyone in public life who comes out, comes out primarily for themselves, and their life is immediately improved. That's what happened to me.
Because I was in the business of translating the 'X-Men' from the very successful comics, and taking the most popular book of the 20th century in 'The Lord of the Rings,' and making it into three movies, I hope people realize I wouldn't get involved in anything I didn't think was really going to be worth their while.
There are people who've enjoyed my work in the theater, and they let me know that it was special for them. I'm not going to say, 'Well, you should have seen me as Gandalf!'
There are still times in my life where I pull back from being totally honest, and I can't imagine a single straight person who would understand that.
I increasingly see organized religion as actually my enemy. They treat me as their enemy. Not all Christians, of course. Not all Jews, not all Muslims.
Gandalf the Grey was always the guy I prefer. Gandalf the White was driven to do a particular job, whereas Gandalf the Grey is a bit more humane.
No one seems to wash in Middle-earth.
Bill Gallagher's new version of 'The Prisoner' is an enthralling commentary on modern culture. It is witty, intelligent and disturbing. I am very excited to be involved.
There are a lot of actors - I'm probably one - who are most at home when they're on stage.
No actor wants to play to an empty house.
I came rather late to film. I've done an awful lot of theater before - before I discovered the camera, you know, seeing everything, requiring much less acting and - and much less presentation, much less projecting, more just being.
I have got prostate cancer, and I have to keep monitoring that. It's no problem, it's under control and I'm very cool about it, but other people are dying from it.
I certainly don't disparage someone whose attitude towards their work is utterly different from mine - that's up to them.
'Lord of the Rings' was about saving the world, big time, big duties.
I got better as an actor, and still I'm getting better. That's only been possible because there's always been work.
If I have any audience, they can know that anything I am in, I would go see, with the expectation of being really satisfied.
The spirit of the four hobbits in 'Lord of the Rings,' I suppose I miss that.
I learned that coming out was crucial to self-esteem.
I have heard of people dying from prostate cancer, and they are the unlucky ones, the people who didn't know they had got it, and it went on the rampage.
If you've been in a film that's seen by millions and millions and millions of people, you're more likely to be recognized for that than for your theater performances, which were seen by considerably less people. Why would I get upset by that?
The conventional wisdom is that if you are gay, you cannot play the romantic straight lead in a movie.
Thanks to every gay person in public and non-public life who has come out.
Gandalf is in Middle-earth to keep an eye on everybody, and that can be a rather serious matter.
One thing Middle-earth is short on is the feminine.
Tony Blair is not a villain, but he's played the part very well.
I was a shy gay man at a time when it was illegal to be gay.
Gandalf saves the world and saves the soul of the world, really.
The battle going on over gay marriage in America reveals an awful lot. The Bible belt - people hate gay people. Because the Bible tells them? No, the Bible tells them an awful lot of things that they ignore.
I've got a waistline to develop.
When I left Cambridge, I applied to regional repertory theaters in the U.K. and got accepted by one of them... And here I am, still at it.
I've always had very catholic tastes.
The strength of British theatre should be that these actors in their middle years know what they're doing and are good at it. Not rich, not famous, but making a living.
Until I came out, my acting was all about disguise, and thereafter it became about telling the truth.
