Close-up With Sir Ian McKellen

An established stage player and well-known screen actor, from Shakespeare to blockbuster, one man's done it all. Having played more than 300 roles in his acting career, nominated for 2 Oscars and scoring over 60 other nominations and awards, who would have thought we would meet Sir Ian McKellen in person – right here at Nanyang Junior College?

Yes, Sir Ian right at our doorstep!

LT3 was buzzing with excitement last Friday (20 July), as students waited for the much anticipated arrival of Sir Ian. He was in Singapore, the only Asian stop of the Royal Shakespeare Company's world tour of their productions, 'King Lear' and 'The Seagull'. Thanks to the Singapore Repertory Theatre and Ms Melissa Kwok who jointly arranged the visit, we NY students were the only Asian school be privileged with meeting Sir Ian on tour.

Striding through the door dressed in a striking blue shirt and stylish blazer (complete with green sneakers) Sir Ian was greeted with our enthusiastic applause. Sir Ian started the session by explaining the background behind some of the pictures adorning the PowerPoint welcome screen that Ms Kwok put together for him. He then gave us some interesting insights on Shakespeare and his plays. He reminded us to "never think of Shakespeare as an old writer, see him as a modern-ish writer…" Indeed, much time might have elapsed since Shakespeare staged his plays, yet the plots and the characters still reflect many circumstances in our modern society.

Sir Ian talks about the roles he played as a Shakespearean actor.

A man with a quirky sense of humor, Sir Ian never failed to amuse the audience. Sir Ian seemed more than delighted when introduced to the cast members of NYJC’s very own drama production,"‘Othello". When Lee Huiling, a female student, was introduced as having played Montano, he responded by telling us how he had to stuff rolled-up socks up his chest when he took on girl's roles many years before. (By the way, Sir Ian acted as Montano too, when he was a teenager).

For the rest of the session, Sir Ian brought us with him into the world of theatrical stage plays as well as Hollywood movies. He also shared with us how tragedy intertwined with humor in Anton Chekhov’s 'The Seagull', which many of us would be going to watch.

Though a fairly short session, Sir Ian McKellen etched upon us not only beautiful memories of him and his great achievements, but also bestowed upon us his powerful knowledge and wisdom from a life full of experience.

"I don't think that I am a particularly interesting person, but the characters I play are interesting."

Sir Ian delivers a message of tolerance and acceptance to the strangers in our community.

"You have to believe that you are the person whom you are playing, even when you’re playing a horrible person like Richard III, or a deranged person like King Lear, or a lovely person, like Gandalf…"

- Sir Ian McKellen

By Clara Ang
Pix by NY Photog Soc
Video by NYconneXions