Ian McKellen recently sat down for an interview and the legendary actor made some comments that his fans won’t want to hear.
He’s 86 now, and none of us live forever, and McKellen has had some physical issues the past couple years. So, he has come to terms with the idea that he is not going to live forever.
“I have accepted that I’m not immortal,” he told The Times. “Yet I still function. And really the inevitability of mortality comes not just from what you are feeling about yourself, but the simple fact that your friends die — all the time.
“When you ae young, death is astonishing, a fascinating thing, but it’s a feature of getting older,” he added. “Death becomes ever present.”
The good news for fans is McKellen said he still feels as though “I’ve still got more to do.”
McKellen had wrist and neck injuries after falling during a fight scene in “Player Kings” back in 2024. The Independent reported that the actor “cried out in pain” and that the show was cancelled. That fall was apparently an eye-opener for McKellen when it comes to the inevitable.
“I’ve relived that fall I don’t know how many times,” he said. “It was horrible.
“I have to keep assuring myself that I’m not too old to act and it was just a bloody accident,” McKellen added. “I didn’t lose consciousness, I hadn’t been dizzy, but I’ve not been able to go back and they still played without me.”
The Independent reported that McKellen is slated to reprise one of his iconic roles this year, playing “Gandalf” in “Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.”
