Ian McKellen on Richard III, Macbeth, and Gandalf

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.7 • 837 Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2022

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the second part of our special extended interview with Sir Ian McKellen, he tells us about some of his most famous roles: playing Macbeth opposite Dame Judi Dench, King Richard III with a screenplay he co-wrote, and Gandalf the Grey in The Lord of the Rings films. McKellen is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published October 25, 2022. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Rob Double at London Broadcast and Andrew Feliciano at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Transcript

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0:00.0	On today's episode, a second act of our conversation with Sir Ian McKellen.
0:10.8	From the Folcher Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.
0:15.5	I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folgers director.
0:18.4	In part one of our interview with Ian McKellen, he discussed playing
0:22.1	Hamlet in his 30s and then again in his 80s. If you missed part one, you can find it on our
0:28.8	website, fulger.edu. Now in part two of our extended interview, McKellen talks about playing
0:35.9	Macbeth opposite Judy Dench in Trevor Nunn's
0:39.0	1979 production, and playing Iago in a 1990 production of Othello, also directed by Nunn.
0:47.5	But possibly McKellon's most famous Shakespearean role is that of Richard III.
0:53.1	In the 1995 film version directed by Richard Longcrane,
0:57.4	the action is set in the 1930s.
1:00.6	Ian McKellen plays the title role as a delightfully self-aware villain.
1:05.8	Was I a woman in this humor wound?
1:08.3	Was I have a woman in this humor?
1:09.8	What?
1:10.7	I'll have a... But I'll not keep her long.
1:14.3	What? I who killed her husband and his father, to take her in her heart's extremist hate with
1:21.0	curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes, and then to win her. all the world to nothing.
1:30.3	McKellen co-wrote the screenplay for the film while touring in the Royal National Theatre's
1:35.3	stage production of Richard III.
1:37.3	Long before he became one of the most recognizable actors of his generation,
1:42.3	McKellen studied at Cambridge alongside David Frost,
	...

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