Box office success has arrived late in the day for acclaimed British actor Sir Ian McKellen. As well as playing Gandalf in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, he's also the villainous Magneto in the "X-Men" franchise...
You've said that you liked the complexity of your character. Why was that?
I had worked with Bryan Singer on "Apt Pupil", a film adaptation from Stephen King. His next film was "X-Men" and he asked me to be involved. I didn't know anything about the comics, so he explained them to me because he hadn't known much about them before he started. He explained the story about the argument that goes on between professor Xavier and Magneto about what you do when you are a mutant and when you are a mutant leader. The argument is that you should integrate, fit in and play things down. Or - and this is Magneto's view - say no, I am not the same as the rest of you, I am different and, in fact, I am much more superior and we are the future. The world belongs to the mutants because we have a gift.
That is an argument that goes on in any civil rights movement and the gay rights movement. I mean, do you talk to the prime minister quietly, do you write letters, do you try and improve the situation for the "mutants" that are gay, or do you go out on the streets and take on society in a violent way, if necessary. It was on those grounds that I was persuaded to do it. Then I was disappointed that I was not allowed to look like the Magneto of the comics. But I have a secret: beneath the rather stern exterior of Magneto's costume, he is wearing Lycra.
How do you feel about going from classical roles to doing a movie like this?
I just don't feel it is any different. It is just a job and the only decision that I make is whether the script is any good. Is it a script that I would like to see brought to life - either on stage or on screen? On the stage, where I spent most of my career, I have done a wide variety of things - comedies, pantomime, Shakespeare, musicals - but I don't think of myself as being a Shakespearean actor or a classical actor or anything.
I try and do a variety of things. Another variety of things is: are you in a small theatre, which is very intimate, or are you in a very large theatre which requires something different? I am hoping to play a dame in a pantomime soon. It doesn't strike me as odd that I should suddenly be in a movie based on a comic. As long as the script is good and the intention of the script is good, then I am there.
What was it like working with the rest of the cast?
On the whole, actors do like each other and are prepared to be nice to each other. I am impressed with everyone. You are all allowed to get on and be equal. The joy, when I started, was working with older actors who made me feel like I was worth working with. Now I am at the other end of the scale, I am always very flattered if I am allowed to hang out with the youngsters. I think I landed in the right job.
Comic books have got quite a geeky image. Do you think X-Men and other comic books have degeekified the image of comic books?
It isn't quite as pure as the translation of a comic book into a movie. There was an intermediary which is a TV version. And X-Men, the animated version, was huge in the USA. "Lord of the Rings" was an animation as well and "Superman" was. So what Hollywood is doing is not making films of the comics but making films of the TV version.
