After more than six decades in theatre, film and television, Ian McKellen says the most significant change in British acting has been the collapse of the repertory theatre system that once trained generations of performers and sustained regional theatre culture across the United Kingdom.

Speaking in a wide-ranging interview covering acting, politics, religion and his best-known roles, McKellen reflected on a career that began in 1961 at the Belgrade Theatre, one of Britain’s first publicly funded civic theatres built after the Second World War.McKellen said repertory companies once provided young actors with continuous work and practical training alongside experienced performers.

At the time, he earned £8 a week, enough to pay rent and living costs while working steadily in theatre.“Every city of similar size had a repertory company,” he said, describing the system as an apprenticeship structure where actors learned technique, discipline and stagecraft through constant production schedules. He added that no comparable nationwide structure now exists in Britain.

Despite those institutional changes, McKellen said audience enthusiasm for live performance remains strong. Theatre-going, he said, continues to be “one of the principal amusements in the UK”.The actor also discussed his longstanding pre-show routines, including stretching and vocal warm-ups with fellow cast members.

While dismissing suggestions he still rehearses in a jockstrap as he once reportedly did during performances of Dance of Death at the Lyric Theatre, McKellen said the communal aspect of theatre remains central to his work.“We stretch muscles, clear vocal cords and gossip,” he said.

“Putting on plays is, at best, a communal business.”Asked whether he would participate in a television series travelling through Europe with fellow actor Patrick Stewart to review local theatre productions, McKellen responded positively but suggested “five-star hotels” would need to replace any camper van arrangements before discussions could proceed.

McKellen also reflected on William Shakespeare and the long-running debate over the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. If given the opportunity to meet the playwright, McKellen said he would ask him directly whether he wrote the works attributed to him and request details about the original design of the Globe Theatre.

The actor revisited his 2025 appearance at the Glastonbury Festival alongside Scissor Sisters, describing the experience as “heady” despite never aspiring to be a singer. He said the crowd response felt like “one long curtain call”.McKellen’s most widely recognised role remains Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.

Asked who would win in a hypothetical battle between Gandalf and Albus Dumbledore, McKellen responded that Gandalf would prevail because he was “the original wizard”.He also addressed speculation that David Bowie had once been considered for the role. McKellen said director Peter Jackson had never confirmed which actors turned down the role, though he acknowledged Bowie’s interest in acting.

McKellen suggested Bowie’s striking appearance may have emphasised Gandalf’s supernatural qualities rather than the humanity he sought to portray.“For all Gandalf’s acquaintance with magic and the supernatural, I was most attracted to the old boy’s humanity,” he said.McKellen also discussed his views on religion and humanism.

Raised in a Christian household with a grandfather who preached as a nonconformist minister in Manchester, McKellen said he stopped worshipping as a teenager but retained admiration for the Religious Society of Friends, particularly for its opposition to violence and early support for gay rights in Britain.The actor linked his patriotism less to politics than to British cultural traditions, particularly Shakespeare and pantomime.

McKellen described pantomime as a uniquely British theatrical form combining slapstick, music, audience participation and cross-dressing into performances designed for family audiences.“It is a matchless introduction to all that is possible in a theatre,” he said.McKellen also reflected on owning The Grapes pub in Limehouse, east London, joking that Gandalf’s staff displayed behind the bar helps deter disruptive customers.

One of the interview’s more personal moments concerned advice given to him by Alec Guinness after McKellen’s performance in Bent, the landmark play about the persecution of gay men under Nazi rule.McKellen recalled that Guinness later invited him to lunch and urged him to withdraw from involvement in Stonewall, the advocacy group formed to campaign for equal treatment of gay and lesbian people under British law.

Guinness, McKellen said, believed actors should avoid public political engagement. McKellen declined to follow the advice, remaining active in LGBTQ rights advocacy throughout subsequent decades.The actor also reflected on moments of disappointment during his career, recalling frustration while playing a minor role opposite Celia Johnson in a BBC adaptation of Noël Coward’s Hay Fever.

McKellen said he had accepted the role partly because of his admiration for Johnson’s performance in Brief Encounter, but found her distant during rehearsals.Revisiting Hamlet, a role he first played in his twenties and later returned to in recent years, McKellen said his understanding of the character evolved with age.

Earlier in life, he interpreted Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy as a call to live ambitiously. More recently, he said the play’s final message resonated more strongly.“When he confides to his best friend: ‘Let be.’ And so say I.”

British actor and writer Amanda Laird has brought a deeply personal narrative of identity, separation and historical memory to the stage with her debut play “Driftwood”, now being staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), marking a significant shift in her career from acting to playwriting.

Laird, widely recognised for her role as paramedic Comfort Jones in the long-running television drama “Casualty”, said the transition to writing was shaped by a prolonged sense of personal and professional stagnation. Speaking about that period, she recalled feeling that “things weren’t developing,” prompting her to confront unresolved questions about her early life.

Born in St Kitts, Laird was separated from her Black Caribbean mother at the age of three when her white British father took her to Trinidad, where she was raised. Despite describing her upbringing as relatively privileged, she said the absence of her mother left unresolved questions that later became central to her creative work.

Her return to St Kitts as an adult led to a reunion with previously unknown family members and, eventually, her mother. Laird said the experience challenged her attempts to remain emotionally guarded. “I thought that I could keep myself shielded and not let people in but that was not the case,” she said, describing the encounter as transformative.

The reunion was short-lived. Her mother died of pancreatic cancer within a year. Laird said she was able to spend limited time with her before her death, including a final private conversation in which her mother spoke about her life. Those interactions became foundational to “Driftwood”, which centres on the relationship between an estranged son and his mother.

Set in a gentleman’s club in 1950s pre-independence Trinidad, the play draws on extensive research and incorporates events grounded in real-life accounts, according to Laird. The narrative unfolds against the backdrop of a society undergoing political and cultural change, with Trinidad approaching independence in 1962.

The political context of the play includes references to Eric Williams, who would later become the country’s first prime minister, and whose political movement emerged in the mid-1950s.

Laird said the period was marked by a broader atmosphere of transformation following the Second World War, with shifting expectations among women and formerly colonised populations.“The second world war had blown things apart,” she said, noting that women who had entered the workforce during wartime were subsequently expected to return to domestic roles, while Black and Commonwealth soldiers returned home without recognition or compensation.

She described this as contributing to a growing momentum for change within Caribbean societies.Cultural expression forms a central component of the play’s setting. Laird highlighted the role of steel bands and calypso music in shaping a distinct Trinidadian identity during the period.

She said these art forms served not only as entertainment but also as vehicles for social commentary, addressing issues ranging from governance to social norms.“Calypso of this era was very much social commentary,” she said, adding that it functioned as a means of confronting authority and engaging with political and social structures.

“Driftwood” is written in Trinidadian patois, a decision Laird said was driven by a commitment to authenticity rather than audience considerations. Reflecting on earlier influences, she cited her experience reading and later performing works by Trinidadian playwright Errol John as formative in understanding the significance of language in capturing lived experience.

“You can’t not try to reflect a truth about the language if you want to capture people’s souls,” she said, describing language as inseparable from cultural history and identity.The play’s development spanned nearly two decades, during which it remained largely unpublished.

Laird attributed the delay in part to industry perceptions that categorised her primarily as an actor. She also acknowledged experiencing impostor syndrome, which contributed to her hesitation in seeking wider recognition for her writing.It was only in 2024, encouraged by a friend, that she submitted “Driftwood” to the Verity Bargate Award for new writing.

The play placed second among approximately 1,700 submissions, bringing it to the attention of the RSC.Laird said she was recovering from complications related to sepsis when she received a call from RSC co-artistic director Daniel Evans informing her that the company intended to stage the play.

She described the moment as unexpected, given the project’s long gestation and her own uncertainty about its reception.Before “Driftwood”, Laird had written privately, including a screenplay and another play titled “Fly Me to the Moon”, which was staged in London earlier this year.

Acting, however, had been her primary focus since childhood, beginning with performances in Trinidad.She said that while theatre was part of her early environment, it was not initially seen as a viable full-time profession. According to Laird, many actors in Trinidad during her youth held additional jobs, reflecting the limited opportunities in the sector at the time.

At 17, she moved to the United Kingdom to study French at the University of Kent, later combining it with drama. She described this decision as a turning point that led her to pursue acting professionally.

Laird has since worked extensively across stage and screen, including performances with the RSC, the National Theatre, and Shakespeare’s Globe. Her recent work includes a gender-inverted production of “Cymbeline”.

She also spoke about the contrast between her experiences growing up in Trinidad and living in Britain, particularly in relation to racial identity. In Trinidad, she said, she felt part of a majority population, whereas in Britain she encountered a different social dynamic that shaped perceptions of identity and belonging.

Her family background, she noted, included a strong engagement with political and cultural issues. Her father was involved in professional advocacy in Trinidad, including opposition to apartheid-era South Africa, while other family members contributed to cultural archiving initiatives in the Caribbean.

“Driftwood” reflects these intersecting themes of personal history, cultural identity and political transformation, situating individual relationships within broader historical processes.