McKellen plans his funeral, wouldn’t mind dress rehearsal
In case you weren’t already plodding through a midlife crisis or contemplating end of days, you will probably want to consider it after learning Ian McKellen thinks about death “every day.”
The actor, 78, revealed as much during the upcoming documentary McKellen: Playing the Part (to be released on his birthday, naturally), via The Sunday Times.
While filming an interview, he casually declared that he would like his memorial to be a party, and “take place in a celebratory way in a theatre. free admission. And I’d want a lot of beautiful people.” McKellen went on to say that after he’d planned it all out, he realized that’s a funeral he’d “love” to go to: “So I hope I might arrange a dress rehearsal before I go.”
“As I see other people getting decrepit and unable to work, I think, ‘Well, that may well happen to me,’” he said, adding he’s got work he wants to do. “But ... why deny myself the pleasure of rehearsing a play?”
And during an interview with BBC Radio 2 when asked if he would be OK with another actor reprising Gandalf in the upcoming Lord of the Rings Amazon series, McKellen said, “What do you mean, another Gandalf? I haven’t said yes because I haven’t been asked. ... But are you suggesting that someone else is going to play it? Gandalf is over 7,000 years old, so I’m not too old.”
That’s the spirit.