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Sir Ian McKellen may have proven his excellence across multiple genres, but perhaps none of his performances come as close to perfection as that of Gandalf in theLord of the Ringsfilm series. And yet, as efficient as his portrayal of the fan-favorite wizard was onscreen, the 85-year-old actor had to put up with some equally tiresome stuff offscreen.
As it turns out, this“tiresome”stuff included filmmaker Peter Jackson making filming extremely tiring for the actors through the barrage of script changes he suggested every now and so often. However, being the genius that he is, McKellen devised the perfect solution to prevent Jackson’s constant changes from affecting him and ended up giving the performance of a lifetime.
Sir Ian McKellen Used His Genius to Cope with Peter Jackson’s Script Changes
Back whenThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first installment in the film trilogy, was initially in development in the early 2000s, filmmakerPeter Jacksondidn’t want to do anything wrong. Since it was one of the most fan-beloved novel series ever, getting it perfect was very important to him. This was presumably why he suggested so many script changes as well.
Lord of the Rings Did the Right Thing by Omitting an Extremely Dark Aragorn Scene in Return of the King That Almost Ruined Aragorn
During an interview withEmpire, McKellen, who embodied the fan-favorite protagonist-wizard Gandalf in the film series, was asked the same question:How long did it take you to recover from the constant barrage of script revisions?Inevitably enough, even he couldn’t help but accept that it was truly a“tiresome”process, but also that he somewhat found a solution for it.
Sharing his secret way of getting through it all,Sir Ian McKellenconfessed:
It was tiresome, wasn’t it? Particularly for this theatre actor who has spent a career honouring a text, honed and settled before production starts. Still, it kept us on our toes and I always had the paperback Lord of the Rings hidden in my robe, to refer to.
Even as Jackson suggested changes to the script midway through the shoot to ensure perfection throughout it that could win fans over, keeping a copy of the book hidden in his robe was a rather genius trick. And effortlessly enough, this seems to have perfectly helped him out as well, considering how widely commended he is for his outstanding performanceas the character.
Fans WantingLOTRto be Made Felt Most Unique to Sir Ian McKellen
Continuing in the same interview, McKellen also let out what felt the most unique to him about working on this live-action version of the fantasy lore established by mastermind writerJ.R.R. Tolkien: The fact that fans were desperately looking forward to the making of this project, which made the thrill of embarking on this adventure even more thrilling.
As theX-Menstar revealed while sharing what“felt most unique to you about the project”:
The real thrill — and an unusual one — was to know that millions of Tolkien fans wanted the film to be made. When we returned to complete filming after the release of the first one, there were none of the usual worries about whether our efforts would be appreciated.
Of course, making such a project that was in demand by millions of fans from all around the globe must have brought about considerable pressure with it as well. But it seems like McKellen truly enjoyedworking under this tremendous pressure and through this thrillas well, and ended up delivering a result worth the wait for fans.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy can currently be streamed on Max.
Mahin Sultan
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2478
Mahin Sultan is a Senior Writer at FandomWire, where she brings a fresh perspective to entertainment news. Having been in the field for over 3 years now, she has already written more than 2,000 articles across a variety of niches, from entertainment to health and fashion. This diverse experience has allowed her to quickly build a solid foundation and a deep understanding of the industry.
