I love the acting community at Cambridge. It's really quite committed and serious, since the days of Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen right through to Emma Thompson and Hugh Laurie.
— Tom Hiddleston
Sensual Mckellen quotations
I think we felt the pressure more at first than this time around.
But still you don't want to let anyone down. I never even met Patrick until we had a Christmas party at Ian McKellen's house on the first movie and then I didn't see him again until the premiere.
I've been grateful enough, smart enough to take the work with Ian McKellen in Gods And Monsters.
Ian McKellen is brilliant with research.
I paid really close attention to the sources he goes to. He's a very, very intelligent man.
Some of the greatest actors have turned superheroes into a serious business: Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson in 'Batman'; Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, the first venerable knights of the X-Men, who have now passed the baton to Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy.
I think Ian McKellen made it all happen, because he used to throw dinner parties and invite everyone over.
Judi Dench and Ian McKellen taught me how to work hard and respect the theatre.
When I was about 16 or 17, I had a teacher who took a group of us to the National Theater in Washington, D.C., and I saw Ian McKellen do his one-man show - I think it was called Acting Shakespeare - and it completely bombed me; it put the zap on my brain in a big way.
That's one of the challenges of acting.
You can't expect that you're going to be successful, but you've got to put your heart and everything you have into it. Look at a guy like Ian McKellen, who is eighty or whatever, and he's just loving his work and you can see that in the work. That defines what type of actor you are. And what kind of people want to work with you. And whether you can do this job for a long, long time.
Theatre outings are my favourite thing to spend money on.
The most influential play I saw was Bent, which starred Ian McKellen. And I loved the original performance of The Rocky Horror Show, with Richard OBrien and Tim Curry at the Royal Court, when I was about 15.
It was so soon after I'd had my son and I really wasn't planning on going back to work for a while. I will walk over hot coals to work with Bill Condon on anything, the experience that you have with him is just too good... I've certainly never worked with him before so the trio of Bill [Codon], Ian [McKellen], and Sherlock Holmes, and England: it was too much to say "no" to.
Hey Atticus, do me a quick favour before we go? its easy.
Sure. What is it? Hold Granuailes staff for just a minute. You know, rest it on the ground so that its like a walking stick or something and the top of it is near your right cheek. Granuaile and I traded weapons to humor him and I stood as instructed. Thats perfect! Now say this like Sir Ian McKellen I am Atticus the White, and I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.