Performing comes naturally to Ian McKellen, who has dominated the stage, television and the silver screen with myriad memorable performances.
From playing Shakespeare’s Richard II and Marlowe’s Edward II, he toured the world as King Lear in the final production for The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Complete Works Festival (2007), followed by a sell-out tour and two London seasons in Waiting for Godot.
He recently completed 100 performances of his second King Lear in London’s West End.
A young generation of cinemagoers discovered him as the mutant Magneto in the X-Men films, and as the wizard Gandalf, in his Oscar-nominated performance in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
More recently, he completed the tour of his one-man show, Ian McKellen On Stage: With Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others and YOU, which started in the West End in September at the Harold Pinter Theatre.
In The Good Liar, McKellen plays Roy Courtnay, a skilled con man, whose next target is a wealthy widow, played by Helen Mirren. McKellen describes his character as someone who “knows how to get what he wants, and yet so much of him is unknowable. If I talk about Roy, I might be saying something Roy wouldn’t want me to tell you. He’s a con man, but who he actually is, where he comes from and what his motives are, are part of the fun of watching the story unwind. His moustache is real, I’ll tell you that much,” he teases. Excerpts:
Roy is a pretty despicable person, but is there anything you liked about him?
I think, if you don’t like the character you’re playing, they probably won’t be very easy to play. But Roy isn’t anyone I would like to meet.
Nor is he really anyone I would like to be. But he does have, I suppose, admirable qualities – in that he’s a survivor.
I suppose you could say there is a moment or two in this film when you think redemption is possible, and that he might somehow, by chance, have met the one woman who can put him at ease with himself. But those moments go by rather quickly. He’s too old to change. So, no, I don’t recommend him as a role model (laughs).
And, how would you describe your rapport with Helen Mirren?
Much of it is meeting as professionals. Helen is an expert, and being close-up against someone who really knows what they’re doing is always a thrill.
You have to be careful not to just sit back and admire, and get on with trying to present your character with the same clarity she’s presenting hers. So you feel very safe. Helen’s got a wonderful range. It keeps you on your toes.
But in all the hours, in between the moments when you film, she’s very congenial company. This is partly because, although we’re not close friends or work together a lot, our roots are in the same sort of earth, you know? I think we like to suddenly surprise people and do something a little bit different.
It’s like working with your sister, really, or your cousin. I feel close to Helen.
And she’s a goer. I think the Mirren brand, of the glamorous, plain-speaking friend, is very attractive.