Ian Mckellen Quotes
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If you are playing King Lear you are the centre of attention anyway. You don't need to draw attention to yourself. It's all laid out for you.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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When we'd suggested doing it, the Theatre Royal management had said, 'Nobody wants to see Waiting for Godot.' As it happened, every single ticket was booked for every single performance, and this confirmation that our judgment was right was sweet. Audiences came to us from all over the world. It was amazing.
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Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality, and discovering the character you're playing through your own experience - so we're all different.
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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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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 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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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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When I came out, I told my stepmother Gladys, and she just said she had known for years and was glad I wasn't lying anymore.
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Ever since the invention of the camera, people have been trying to create 3D, because we see things in 3D, and everyone's aware that the camera doesn't.
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I don't think many people will re-read 'The Da Vinci Code.'
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I had never come across the 'X-Men' comics till I was asked to play Magneto, so I just jumped into that job.
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If you get criticized, good - I don't think people get criticized enough. People talk behind your back and they criticize you, but they don't often come up and say it to you.
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There's lots of Tolkien that must be confusing to people.
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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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It's easier to go from theatre to film than the other way round. In film you're absolutely loved and cossetted and cared for. In film your director makes your performance. In theatre you're carrying it all.
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My ambition is to get better as an actor.
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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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There are a lot of actors - I'm probably one - who are most at home when they're on stage.
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My friends are my family.