Ian Mckellen Quotes
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Very, very rare that you do a job knowing that the audience is desperate for you to do that job. Most films you make don't get released, is the fact.
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Until I came out, my acting was all about disguise, and thereafter it became about telling the truth.
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I certainly wouldn't define myself as a northerner. I'm not even really sure what that means. I've lived in London for 50 years. I wasn't born here, but I have spent most of my life here. So I don't make much of it, to be honest. I'm just myself.
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The first film role I deliberately chose to play after I came out was a raging heterosexual, John Profumo.
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Every time you work is a challenge. There's a constant worry about it, and it's a side of acting I don't like.
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I headed out to have a breather at the stage door, dressed in my tramp costume. I had my bowler hat between my feet and there were passers-by, and one of them turned back and said, 'Do you need help, brother?' And $1 fell into my hat!
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Before acting, I wanted to become a journalist. I also toyed with the idea of being a chef - but that's only when people asked me what I wanted to be. In fact, I always used to say I wanted to be an actor, but I didn't ever believe that I was good enough to be come one.
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I'm not someone who wears shades all the time and ducks into a darkened car in case I'm recognized - that would be absolute misery.
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There have been many gay knights in the past - like Sir Noel Coward or Sir John Gielgud.
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For old actors, just remember that inside you're only 14. Acting is for kids. You poor old grown-ups, you've forgotten how to do what kids know automatically.
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I like sleeping a lot.
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You might be surprised by how interested young people are in older people.
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Macbeth is a very popular play with audiences. If you want to sell out a theater, just mount a production of Macbeth. It's a short play, it's an exciting play, it's easy to understand, and it attracts great acting.
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Gandalf is ever-present in my life. I like it.
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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.
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We are very lucky to be men because women have a terrible time getting older parts. It's much more difficult.
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I can't take on all the worries of the world, you know. I can only talk about being gay and being an actor. I'll have to leave those other battles to somebody else.
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I'm an eccentric English actor, and there's a lot of us around.
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Anyone in public life who comes out, comes out primarily for themselves, and their life is immediately improved. That's what happened to me.
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I don't really like being with people my own age for long periods, because all we talk about is our decrepitude, how the world is changing for the worse even though it isn't.
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No actor wants to play to an empty house.
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Gandalf is in Middle-earth to keep an eye on everybody, and that can be a rather serious matter.
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I tend to discourage people from calling me 'Sir Ian,' because I don't like being separated out from the rest of the population. Of course, it can be useful if you're writing an official letter, like trying to get a visa or something passed through Parliament. They're impressed by these things.
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I remember Tom Stoppard saying to me when I came out, 'I feel so sorry for you, because you'll never have children.' These days I would say, 'Well, why not, Tom?'