In the ’50s and ’60s, the life of a gay man was a secret. Homosexuality was illegal, so you didn’t draw attention to yourself. Ian Mckellen Read Quote
King Lear,’ I’ve been seeing all my life. I mean, the great actors of my lifetime… to join their company, as it were, by playing a part that’s challenged them, is one of the great joys of being an actor who does the classics. Ian Mckellen Read Quote
There are some tremendous actors in the U.K. who have been knighted, and I’ve spent much of my life admiring many of them, like Laurence Olivier. So it’s very flattering to be in their company. Ian Mckellen Read Quote
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. Ian Mckellen Read Quote
I’m brilliant at cooking my stepmother’s scrambled egg recipe. The secret is to put eggs, butter, milk, and seasoning together in the saucepan, and to keep stirring with a wooden spoon under a low heat until the preferred consistency is reached. Ian Mckellen Read Quote
When I went to lobby Nelson Mandela while the post-apartheid constitution was being drafted, I asked him to endorse making it illegal to discriminate on grounds of sexuality. I’d been warned that he might giggle if I mentioned homosexuality. Ian Mckellen Read Quote
Capitalism offers you freedom, but far from giving people freedom, it enslaves them. Ian Mckellen Read Quote
How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I’m portraying in the film or play. Ian Mckellen Read Quote
