“If you could go back in time with a time machine and meet Shakespeare, what would you ask him?” That’s just one of the many questions Ian McKellen received from fans, in a piece published by The Guardian. The iconic actor said, among other things, that he would ask Shakespeare if he had seen the film Alien: Romulus, but what rightfully captured readers’ attention was the 86-year-old McKellen’s answer to the question of who would win in the scenario: Gandalf vs Dumbledore, the wizards from from Tolkien’s world and the world of Harry Potter respectively.
Having played Gandalf to universal acclaim in both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, McKellen didn’t hesitate to name the winner: “Why would those two be fighting? But Gandalf, of course, would win. He is the original wizard.”
What About David Bowie as Gandalf?
As for the rumors that David Bowie had gone through Peter Jackson’s office for a shot at the role of Gandalf, the actor said: “I never managed to get Peter to confirm who had turned down this role of a lifetime. As for Bowie, he wasn’t the only one among glittering music stars who wanted to have the same success in film, but never quite pulled it off. Despite Gandalf’s familiarity with magic, what drew me more was this old man’s humanity, that type of shaggy, weathered elder you’d hope to encounter wandering the roads of Middle-earth. Perhaps Bowie’s striking looks and voice would have emphasized the supernatural side more.”
His Grandfather the Preacher — and the Stage
One reader asked McKellen how his preacher grandfather had influenced him, and whether that was the reason he became an actor, given that his grandfather also addressed audiences. And did he believe in any religion?
On the first part, McKellen replied: “No. It was actors, amateurs and professionals, who captivated me first. My father’s father was a Nonconformist preacher, with emphatic gestures, narrow shoulders, lending weight to his subtle Lancashire accent. Once, in his eighties, he was speaking to a packed hall in Manchester when he ran out of steam, like an actor forgetting his lines, and silently crumpled behind the lectern. The awkward confusion in the room settled when he leaned forward from his chair to say: ‘This worries you far more than it does me.’ I think he felt as comfortable in the pulpit as his grandson feels on the stage.”
On the second part, whether he believes in religion, McKellen answered plainly: no. “I recall with fondness the Gospel stories I heard over and over as a child, but I stopped believing in my teens. Since then, the Quakers are the religious community I admire most, for their commitment to the sixth commandment and because they were the first Christians to support gay rights in the United Kingdom.”
