LONDON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/span>Ian McKellen is running late. We\u2019re meeting in his townhouse, located along the Thames in east London. It feels almost like a scene from his new film, \u201cThe Christophers,\u201d about an aging painter living in a similarly historic abode.<\/p>\n It becomes even more uncanny when I\u2019m led into a book-filled living room that overlooks the river and asked to wait a few minutes. The walls are covered with paintings, some crookedly hung, and there\u2019s an enormous David Hockney book displayed on a stand. It was given to McKellen by the artist, a longtime friend, for the actor\u2019s 80th birthday.<\/p>\n When McKellen does emerge, wearing a blue zip-up hoodie and black sweatpants, he has a mischievous look in his eye. Instead of shaking my hand or saying hello, he intones, \u201cDo you know why this is called the sitting room?\u201d The well-worn sofa and adjacent armchairs suggest it\u2019s because people sit in it. I say so.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re a journalist,\u201d McKellen bats back. \u201cLook around.\u201d<\/p>\n It soon becomes clear that all of the paintings, which include a drawing by English painter L.S. Lowry, depict someone sitting. The actor, 86, finds the revelation delightful, triggering a hint of whimsical glee reminiscent of Gandalf himself.<\/p>\n Once he settles on the sofa beside me, McKellen vacillates between performative storytelling and genuine reflection. We\u2019re ostensibly meeting to discuss the new film, directed by Steven Soderbergh, about a painter grappling with his legacy. But the discussion veers wildly. He offers up memories like gifts: studying drama at Cambridge alongside Derek Jacobi in the late 1950s, Meryl Streep surprising him with a gooseberry crumble while filming 1985\u2019s \u201cPlenty,\u201d<\/a> a fireman at Ground Zero calling him Magneto after he walked into Lower Manhattan two days after Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n \u201cI say to young actors, \u2018I didn\u2019t play Magneto until I was 60,\u2019\u201d McKellen says of the stardom he experienced later in life. He was nominated for his first Oscar at 59 in 1999 for Bill Condon\u2019s \u201cGods and Monsters\u201d<\/a> and subsequently joined the X-Men franchise and Peter Jackson\u2019s \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d films. \u201cI\u2019d been well-known,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI\u2019d been on Broadway, the West End, toured the world. But nothing is like the fame that film brings.\u201d<\/p>\n Growing up in Lancashire in northern England, McKellen never aspired to be a movie star. \u201cMy parents gave me the impression that cinemas were dangerous places,\u201d he says. \u201cThey called them flea pits because you caught diseases there.\u201d Instead, the family went to the theater.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I thought of being an actor, I thought of being on a stage,\u201d he says. \u201cI used to think of myself as a civil servant, providing entertainment.\u201d After three years of stage work in the early 1960s, he asked an agent how he could get into film. \u201cHe said, \u2018Wait until your late 20s, that\u2019s when women find men most attractive,\u2019\u201d McKellen says. He laughs at the irony \u2014 the actor came out publicly as gay in 1988. \u201cI took that advice and I kept going in the theater and I\u2019m very glad I did,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n His first screen role came at age 30 in Michael Hayes\u2019 1969 drama \u201cThe Promise.\u201d McKellen has made dozens of films since, from superhero blockbusters to character-driven indies like \u201cSix Degrees of Separation\u201d<\/a> and musicals such as \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d and even the maligned \u201cCats.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n Still, McKellen claims the process of making a film is \u201call a bit of a bafflement.\u201d He says he asks every director how to act for the camera, but none of them will tell him. Once, on the set of the 2018 Shakespearean biopic \u201cAll Is True,\u201d director Kenneth Branagh told McKellen to move his head less. \u201cWonderful note,\u201d he agrees. \u201cI do move my head too much.\u201d<\/p>\n Michaela Coel and Ian McKellen in the movie \u201cThe Christophers,\u201d directed by Steven Soderbergh.<\/p>\n (Neon)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n When shooting \u201cThe Christophers\u201d in London early last year, McKellen asked Soderbergh the same question. \u201cHe said, \u2018I won\u2019t be doing that,\u2019\u201d the actor recalls. \u201cAnd he didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t even want to answer that with a straight face,\u201d Soderbergh says, speaking over Zoom from his office in London. \u201cI don\u2019t think we ever even spoke about it again.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Christophers\u201d is based on a one-sentence idea Soderbergh came up with and shared with screenwriter Ed Solomon, his collaborator on the 2021 thriller \u201cNo Sudden Move\u201d<\/a> and on the TV shows \u201cMosaic\u201d and \u201cFull Circle.\u201d He imagined an older artist in a situation with a younger artist where \u201cit\u2019s a ruse but I didn\u2019t know what the ruse was,\u201d the filmmaker says.<\/p>\n Solomon ran with it, writing a compelling character study about a famous but washed-up British painter named Julian Sklar (McKellen) whose two estranged children surreptitiously hire Lori Butler (\u201cI May Destroy You\u2019s\u201d Michaela Coel<\/a>), an art restorer and forger, to complete an unfinished series that could be worth millions.<\/p>\n \u201cThe worst possible outcome for a creative person is utter irrelevance,\u201d Soderbergh says. \u201cYou\u2019d rather be somebody that makes things that get people angry than things that generate a shrug or, worse, nothing. I kept thinking: How do you physicalize that idea? My fear led me to this idea of an artist at the end of their career who\u2019s not relevant anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n This is less of a concern for McKellen personally. When asked if the film made him consider his own legacy as an artist, he shrugs. \u201cNo,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n Solomon wrote the screenplay with the actor in mind. Neither he nor Soderbergh knew about McKellen\u2019s great love of painting. In late 2024, Soderbergh and Solomon met with McKellen on the same sofa where we\u2019re now doing this interview. Soderbergh brought the actor a small, framed collage he\u2019d made.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as I walked in, I thought, \u2018The last thing this guy needs is another piece of art, especially from me,\u2019\u201d Soderbergh says. \u201cBut he was very sweet about it.\u201d<\/p>\n McKellen is incredulous that \u201cThe Christophers\u201d was written for him. Still, he recognizes the correlations between himself, an aging gay artist with a complex legacy, and the far more disillusioned Julian.<\/p>\n \u201cMy connection with Julian is that he\u2019s a showoff,\u201d McKellen says. He twirls his glasses in his hand as he speaks. \u201cHe\u2019s aware of his position in the world. He lives by himself and he\u2019s gay and he\u2019s been unhappy in love. He\u2019s inquisitive and he\u2019s domineering \u2014 I can sort of relate to that.\u201d<\/p>\n He looks at me pointedly. \u201cBut I\u2019m a lot happier than he is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy connection with Julian is that he\u2019s a showoff,\u201d McKellen says of his new character. \u201cHe\u2019s inquisitive and he\u2019s domineering \u2014 I can sort of relate to that. But I\u2019m a lot happier than he is.\u201d<\/p>\n (Davd Urbanke \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Despite McKellen\u2019s apparent modesty about his film acting, he\u2019s always had a tremendous presence on screen. His performance in \u201cThe Christophers\u201d is remarkably alive. There is an electricity that threads through every scene. It\u2019s McKellen reveling in a great role: charmingly funny but also bittersweet in the film\u2019s examination of how fading fame can calcify one\u2019s soul.<\/p>\n McKellen says it helped that Soderbergh shot the film speedily over 19 days, rarely doing more than two takes. As usual, the director operated the camera himself<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you go to Pinewood to make the Avengers movie with all those Marvel characters, you do see the directors, they come and talk to you, but whilst you\u2019re filming they\u2019re watching it from somewhere else,\u201d McKellen says. \u201cSteven\u2019s there with you behind the camera. I think that was what was so enjoyable about it.\u201d<\/p>\n McKellen seems like someone who could find the fun in anything. He\u2019s remarkably spry for his age and, unlike his character in \u201cThe Christophers,\u201d goes out regularly, often to the theater. Last night, he went to see \u201cLes Liaisons Dangereuses\u201d at the National Theatre. He owns the pub on the corner near his house, the Grapes. He laughs uproariously when he remembers something that delights him, like his relationship with Streep.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we said goodbye, I said, \u2018Now, can we do a play?\u2019\u201d McKellen says. He mimics Streep\u2019s accent almost perfectly: \u201c\u2018Oh, I love that. Yes. I can\u2019t at the moment, though, I\u2019ve got a full career. But it won\u2019t last for long.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The impression stops. He leans his head back and guffaws. \u201cI\u2019m still waiting for that call.\u201d<\/p>\n Acting onstage is currently a tenuous subject for McKellen. Last year he shifted his focus solely to movies. He filmed \u201cThe Christophers,\u201d returned to play Magneto in the upcoming \u201cAvengers: Doomsday,\u201d<\/a> shot the British rom-com \u201cFrank and Percy\u201d and embodied Lowry, a painter he calls vastly underappreciated, in the BBC\u2019s \u201cL.S. Lowry: The Unheard Tapes.\u201d<\/p>\n All of this was purposeful in response to a very dark moment in the actor\u2019s life and career.<\/p>\n In the summer of 2024, McKellen was midway through a stage performance of \u201cPlayer Kings\u201d \u2014 Robert Icke\u2019s modern adaptation of Shakespeare\u2019s two-play \u201cHenry IV\u201d \u2014 at the No\u00ebl Coward Theatre in London when he tripped during a fight scene and fell off the stage<\/a>. Although he wasn\u2019t badly injured, the incident shook him.<\/p>\n \u201cAs they laid me out on the stage, I said, \u2018I\u2019m dying,\u2019\u201d McKellen says of a frightening 2024 stage fall. \u201cAnd I thought I was. I was out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n (Davd Urbanke \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n When I ask about it, he stares out at the Thames for what feels like an endless stretch of silence. The waves are audible against his balcony.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really like to talk about it because it was a very shocking business,\u201d he finally admits. There\u2019s a tonal shift in the room. He doesn\u2019t look at me as he recalls slipping on a piece of newspaper.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I fell off the stage into the lap of an unfortunate audience member, I said to the full house, \u2018I don\u2019t do this,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cMeaning, I\u2019m an actor who\u2019s in control of what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n He grimaces at the memory. \u201cAs they laid me out on the stage, I said, \u2018I\u2019m dying,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I thought I was. I was out of control. Things were happening to me that I wasn\u2019t able to stop. And what I\u2019m left with is a feeling of horror. I don\u2019t ever want that experience of being out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n McKellen suffered a chipped vertebra and fractured wrist, but he says the doctors didn\u2019t find anything else wrong with him. He certainly wasn\u2019t dying.<\/p>\n \u201cI was able to go back to X-Men land and destroy New Jersey, effortlessly,\u201d he says proudly, raising his hands like Magneto in the throes of power. \u201cI was able to do all the filming. But the stage\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n He trails off. He gazes back out at the river. It\u2019s a hurdle McKellen has yet to clear, but he\u2019s made some strides forward. In January, he performed a series of solo fundraiser shows at London\u2019s Orange Tree Theatre and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater in January.<\/p>\n \u201cI loved being in front of the audience again,\u201d he says. \u201cI got all my laughs. So I\u2019m OK. But I haven\u2019t been in a play yet.\u201d He hints at a possible production that\u2019s local to his house, but it\u2019s not actually been written yet. \u201cWe\u2019re still trying to find it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/e328529\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6951x5213+0+0\/resize\/320x240!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fbe%2F86%2F131dfcfc4cf9af04937b4fefafe4%2F1549157-et-sir-ian-mckellen-297.jpg)
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