For most of his career, Sir Ian McKellen was recognized primarily as a theater actor , having performed the work of Shakespeare since the mid-‘60s, from “Much Ado About Nothing” to “Hamlet.” He even received a Tony nomination in 1981 for his role as Salieri in Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus” on Broadway, in which he starred alongside Tim Curry. However, in a recent interview with The Guardian , McKellen acknowledged that it was his performance in the stage and film productions of “Richard III” during the 1990s that created the seismic shift in his career.
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“When we were doing ‘Richard III’ at the National Theatre in 1990, the director Richard Eyre, the designer Bob Crowley and I felt there should be modern references in the design,” McKellen said. “Although it is a history play, if you look at the dates, there were people at the original production whose grandparents would have lived in Richard III’s time. Richard suggested looking back to the 1930s and fascism, which seemed like a modern equivalent. Just before the play opened in the US, I said: ‘Shouldn’t we film this?’ He said: ‘Yes, you’d better write a screenplay.’
Though McKellen was well-known in the theatrical sphere , by the time McKellen’s screenplay was ready to be turned into a film, he knew it would need greater star-power to draw audiences and push the narrative further.
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“I wasn’t known as a film actor, so we wanted to get some American stars,” said McKellen. “I thought the Woodville family, which Richard III marries into, could be American, so we cast Annette Bening and Robert Downey Jr. It helped explain why everybody hated them — it was like people being appalled by the idea of Edward VIII marrying an American divorcee. Except Annette didn’t want to do it with an American accent. She said: ‘People will think I can’t do an English one. And I can.’ We had to keep saying: ‘Please make it more American!’”
The master thespian still has his issues with the final product, but knows it was the film that elevated his status beyond his wildest expectations. Reflecting on “Richard III,” McKellen said, “I thought the film was probably 10 minutes too short: it was in danger of becoming a cartoon version. But, just as with Iago in ‘Othello,’ you find yourself wanting Richard to succeed against your better instincts, just to see how far he’ll go – so it races along. Suddenly I was being considered seriously as a film actor. If Bryan Singer hadn’t seen it, he would never have asked me to be in ‘Apt Pupil’ or ‘X-Men.’ ‘Richard III’ the movie changed my life.”
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