Spotlight On Ian McKellen

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Ian McKellen

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Movie offers keep coming, and other than his inability to play an American — ''I wish I could, I just can't plug in vocally, or even temperamentally, to what it's like to be brought up in this country'' — no preconceptions limit his interest. Be it a grim, literate period piece or a comic-book explodathon, if the story's well told, he's interested. ''Ian McKellen, in my opinion, can do anything,'' raves Ratner. ''Magneto is a villain that we love. It's easy to play the villain, but to [get audiences] to love you — it takes a deft hand in your performance. He's a guy who literally could star in a movie alone and I would sit there and watch that s---.''

For a Respected British Actor, McKellen derives a surprisingly unabashed glee from the big event pics. For a New York City scene in Last Action Hero, in which he played Death, he had to leave a movie theater in the pouring rain. ''They said, 'Cut!' and the rain stopped and the traffic all moved backwards,'' he recalls, ''and I realized though I was in the middle of Times Square, I was actually on a film set. It was astonishing. Astonishing!'' He happily drums on his knees with his hands, as if hoping that someone might wheel in a giant rain machine right now. ''The kid in me just loves that. Everybody who goes to Universal Studios and Disney World wants to know what it's like to be in a movie. And I get to be in a movie! That's what I can't get over.'' Not even the snobbiest of theater critics could pan that kind of enthusiasm.

(Additional reporting by Neil Drumming)

MY BRILLIANT CAREER

A look at some of McKellen's notable plays and movies

1967
The Promise
Judi Dench and Ian McShane costarred with him in this drama in London.

1974-78
Royal Shakespeare Company
Four years, 13 plays.

1980
Amadeus
Playing Salieri earned him a Tony.

1989
Scandal

1993
Last Action Hero
''When I sat next to Schwarzenegger in makeup, we chatted and I tried not to be frightened, until I realized [it was] his double.''

1994
A Knight Out
He toured with this autobiographical one-man show.

1995
Richard III

1998
Gods and Monsters
''Anyone could have played Gandalf. Not everyone could play James Whale.''

1998
Apt Pupil

2000-06
The X-Men movies

2001-03
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
''After Gandalf, I was offered a lot of old parts. Gandalf was 7,000 years old.''

2006
The Da Vinci Code