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Gandalf goes indie
« on: Sep 9th, 2003, 4:23pm » |
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Gandalf goes indie
Saturday, September 6, 2003 Posted: 10:06 PM EDT (0206 GMT)
TORONTO, Canada (Reuters) -- Despite decades as a stage and screen legend, Sir Ian McKellen still felt he had dues to pay while spending last summer in British Columbia filming Hollywood blockbuster "X2" so he took a role in a small independent Canadian production.
"I felt rather guilty," the Academy Award-nominated actor said on Saturday. "There was I, a visitor, highly paid, making an American movie in your beautiful country. I didn't really think I'd quite earned the right to the wonderful time that I was having."
It was Canadian director Carl Bessai's good fortune that McKellen's X-Men role only required 15 days of work over 15 weeks, leaving him with ample time to "throw in with these local filmmakers."
McKellen plays the title role in "Emile," which premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday night. The film was made on a shoe-string budget of $2.2 million (C$3 million), something of an eye-opener for the British actor.
"You've got to be on your toes. It's a constant state of high energy," McKellen said. "When you're making a big movie often, as far as actors go, the energy is seeping out of the trailer and you're just hoping that you might get to meet the crew by the end of the day. And sometimes you don't."
But as exhilarating as the shoot was -- director Bessai's seat-of-the-pants filming entailed McKellen striding along a platform in London's Paddington Station at one point, casually passing surprised rush-hour commuters -- there were some drawbacks.
"Of course, C$3 million isn't an awful lot to spend and people have got to have breakfast," he said. "If you can't afford the breakfast, you're probably not going to get the best performances so a little bit of money is a help."
McKellen, who reprised his role as Gandalf in "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" last year, said the trick to acting is to never forget you're still young, even at 64.
"For old actors, just remember that inside you're only 14," he said. "Acting is for kids. It's only kids who really know how to act. You poor old grown-ups, you've forgotten how to do what kids know automatically."
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