Ian McKellen has no plans to give up acting
Sir Ian McKellen says his role as King Lear in an upcoming London production may be his last major Shakespeare role but he has no plans on retiring, as long as his knees and memory hold out.
Playing the tormented ruler is one of two projects prompting reflection from the 79-year-old star of the X-Men and Lord of the Rings film series.
“I’ll keep going as long as the knees keep going. And the mind and the memory are still there. Any day now they can begin to fade and then I’ll perhaps regret that I didn’t do stuff I could have done while I was fit. So being fit, here I am and if I’m not acting, what the hell I going to do sit at home,” McKellan said during a recent interview.
Talking about playing King Lear, a role he played for the Royal Shakespeare Co. a decade ago, the veteran actor said playing King Lear allows him to reflect on the journey of an old man, one that feels very personal to him.
“For me, it’s worth re-exploring because nearly 80 myself, that’s King Lear’s age, I can concentrate in part on the fact that it’s an old man, it’s an old man’s journey, it’s a man who’s withdrawing from life. It’s a man whose mind is giving way, really and much else in his life is a confusion to him and I find that all too easy to relate to. So I take the part very personally,” said the twotime Oscar nominee.
McKellen is also getting a career and life retrospective through a new documentary focused about him called McKellan: Playing The Part. It focuses not only on McKellen’s famous roles, but also his activism for gay rights.