Did you know that Ian McKellen was not the first choice to play Gandalf in the “Lord of the Rings” saga? Two cinema legends had indeed refused the role!
It’s difficult to imagine today another actor than Ian McKellen as the wizard Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings saga. And yet, the British actor was not the production’s first choice to interpret on screen this cult character from the imagination of JRR Tolkien!
When Variety asked Ian McKellen if it didn’t bother him too much to have been the second choice to star in the film The Critic (the main role was initially given to Simon Russell Beale), the actor did not appear at all offended. “I don’t think you’re ever really the first choice.”he declares at the microphone of the specialized site.
Ian McKellen then takes the opportunity to recall that he himself was far from having been put at the top of the list to play the character of Gandalf on the big screen.
“I was definitely not the first choice to play the character. Anthony Hopkins refused the role. Sean Connery also. They’re all coming out of the woods now, and I hope they feel stupid.”playfully concludes the one who, ironically, also said no to a cult franchise.
It was Sean Connery who was actually Peter Jackson’s very first choice to play Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings saga. But the actor, despite an astronomical offer, had declined for a very clear reason.
The Lord of the Rings: this delicious sequence with Gandalf was improvised
Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy but also in that of the Hobbit, will soon be showing in The Critic, which sees him slip into the guise of a much-feared London drama critic. Gemma Arterton and Mark Strong also appear in the credits of this feature film which does not yet have a French release date.
Retirement time has not yet come for Ian McKellen, aged 84. “Retire? To do what?”he asks, incredulous, still at the microphone of Variety.
“I have never experienced unemployment, but I am aware that at any moment something could happen to me and prevent me from working again. But as long as the knees hold and the memory remains intact, why not Shouldn’t I continue?”
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