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Home / Entertainment

Why Ian McKellen turned down Gandalf

Herald online
8 Nov, 2011 06:30 PM2 mins to read
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Sir Ian McKellen initially turned down the role of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings because of a clash with his X-Men movie. Photo / Supplied

Sir Ian McKellen initially turned down the role of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings because of a clash with his X-Men movie. Photo / Supplied

Sir Ian McKellen initially said no to Gandalf and only scored the pivotal Lord of the Rings role thanks to a chance meeting in a restaurant.

While it's almost inconceivable to imagine wizened wizard Gandalf being played by anyone else, McKellen says shooting for The Fellowship of the Ring - the first film in Peter Jackson's blockbuster trilogy - clashed with another role he'd signed up for in 2000.

The frank admission comes in a new Lord of the Rings 10-year anniversary special in the December edition of Empire magazine, in which McKellen admits Gandalf was "the role of a lifetime" - but he initially turned down Jackson's offer.

"At the time I was about to play Magneto in the X-Men film in Toronto," he tells Empire. "I was already committed to that ... and it meant I couldn't get to New Zealand in time.

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"So I had to tell Peter I could no longer do Gandalf."

It was that exact night that McKellen dined out at a London restaurant next to New Line Cinema executive Bob Shaye.

"He said, 'I hear you're going to be in our movie.' And I said, 'Oh, not anymore.' And he said, 'What's the problem?' And I explained.

"He just said, 'Leave that to me'," said McKellen.

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"That was the best thing he ever did for me, beacuse they worked out they could do without me for the first three months ... that is what I remember of the beginning of it - how I very nearly didn't play Gandalf!"

The latest Empire magazine is available on import in New Zealand.

- Herald online

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