An Avengers: Doomsday Star Once Called Movies The Worst Form Of Entertainment

Those of us who were paying attention to movies in the mid-1990s were likely first introduced to actor Ian McKellen through his performance as the title character in Richard Loncraine’s 1995 version of “Richard III.” That was my experience, at least. I was so impressed by McKellen’s performance as Richard III that I looked him up, only to find that I had already seen him play Reinhardt Lane in the 1994 film adaptation of “The Shadow.” Who was this excellent British actor who was wholly capable of playing Richard III yet popped up in silly 1990s action flicks as well?

Of course, Sir Ian McKellen is one of the most celebrated and famous stage actors of his generation. He began his professional acting career in 1961, appearing in a production of “A Man for All Seasons” at the Belgrade Theater. Later in the 1960s, he gave a notable performance in William Shakespeare’s “Richard II” as part of the Prospect Theatre Company. His talent allowed his career to thrive, and he had become pretty famous by the time the 1970s arrived. On the side, McKellen would occasionally show up in films starting in 1969. He would go on to appear in a smattering of pictures throughout the 1980s including “The Keep,” “Plenty,” and “Scandal.”

Of course, thanks to his roles in blockbusters like “X-Men” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” McKellen became a world-recognized superstar. He also presumably became very, very wealthy.

But prior to his worldwide stardom, McKellen went on record pooh-poohing the cinematic form. He was a stage actor, and he once saw film as a lesser artistic medium. As reported by Cable Guide in 1991, he once argued that films were, in fact, the worst possible thing for an actor to do. 

The 1991 issue of Cable Guide explained that Ian McKellen, already known as one of British theater’s modern greats, was about to be seen in a rerun of his 1969 movie “A Touch of Love.” McKellen didn’t seem the least bit wistful about the film, however, given that he had previously come after the entire cinematic medium with no small amount of vitriol. “Films are absolutely the worst of all. The actor is never told anything. It is so insulting, so rude, and so despicable,” McKellen was quoted as having said some years before.

It’s unclear what, precisely, he meant, although one can intuit that acting in films is a more technical process than stage performing. The magazine then gave a miniature biography of McKellen’s career up to that point, noting that he began appearing in plays when he was still a schoolboy. He was even said to have played Edgar from “King Lear” in the buff and gained lots of attention for his performances in plays like “Bent” and “Amadeus.” 

Hilariously, Cable Guide wrote that “it’s safe to assume that McKellen’s best work will always be seen on stage. The advice being perhaps ‘for the best in drama, try a knight in the theatre.'” This was written before McKellen began appearing in more U.S. movies like “Six Degrees of Separation,” “Last Action Hero,” and, yes, “The Shadow.” 

Now, of course, McKellen is a world-famous star who will reprise his “X-Men” role as Erik “Magneto” Lehnsherr in the upcoming superhero epic “Avengers: Doomsday” (on top of returning as the wizard Gandalf in the developing “Lord of the Rings” movie “The Hunt for Gollum”). He may even destroy an entire state in “Doomsday,” if McKellen himself is to be trusted.