So, we're getting to this story maybe a day late because I had to take some time to calm down. My temper, you see. So, when Geeks OUT heard that creepy-handsome actor Damian Lewis, "star" of that show Homeland with Claire Danes crying and Mandy Patinkin and the girl from Firefly, took a swipe at legendary, iconic Sir Ian McKellan the White, Master of Magnetism and Acting, I was all, "Who the fuck is SHE???"
Actors talking about acting is ALWAYS FASCINATING. Lewis had this to say about his theatre background in an interview with The Guardian:
He worried that he was backing his career into a corner. "The idea that I would be one of these slightly over-the-top, fruity actors who would have an illustrious career on stage, but wouldn't start getting any kind of film work until I was 50 and then start playing wizards."
Excuse me? Were you possibly being such a little bitch about SIR Ian McKellen, one of the most respected and admired actors and human beings in the world, who has been very openhearted about having a long and storied stage career before rather recently becoming a worldwide household name because of fantastic performances in a handful of hugely successful sci-fi and fantasy movies? YOU SHOULD BE SO FUCKING LUCKY. But, what doesn't this guy know about career sustainability, he has a Golden Globe®, people!
Before I ask you to hold my baby and clock this clown, our Ian was asked about Lewis's comment by the Radio Times, and showed us truly what becomes a legend most:
"I wouldn't like to have been one of those actors who hit stardom quite early on and expected it to continue and was stuck doing scripts that I didn't particularly like just to keep the income up," he told the Radio Times.
"I've always wanted to get better as an actor. And I have got better. You've only got to see my early work to see that."
He added: "As for a fruity voice? Well, it may be a voice that is trained like an opera singer's voice: to fill a large space. It is unnatural.
"Actors have to be heard and their voice may therefore develop a sonorous quality that they can't quite get rid of, so you think actors are as pompous as their voice is large. I suppose Damian was thinking of that a little bit, too."
McKellen, who described Lewis's remarks as "fair comment", said: "No one needs to feel sorry for me or Michael Gambon [who played Professor Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies] or anyone else who has fallen victim to success."
BAM. HAIR FLIP.
McKellen will just have to content himself with knocking Broadway audiences dead night after night and bro-ing around New York with Waiting for Godot costar Sir Patrick Stewart.
Of course, no one would let this story die, so the actor, who looks somewhat like but is nowhere near as successful as Benedict Cumberbatch, was asked why he felt entitled to throw dust on our Ian:
"I am hugely embarrassed that comments of mine have been linked in a negative way to Sir Ian McKellen. I have always been, and continue to be, an enormous fan and admirer of Sir Ian's.
"He's one of the greats and one of the reasons I became an actor. My comment in the Guardian was a soundbite I've been giving since 1999 – it was a generic analogy that was never intended to demean or describe anyone else's career. I have contacted Sir Ian McKellen and have given him my sincerest apologies."
'Generic analogy,' whatever. We're done with you.
Our love for Sir Ian knows no bounds at Geeks OUT. Remember Takei Back the Night and Dream Weaver, where we celebrated beloved icons George Takei and Sigourney Weaver, respectively, with art and merriment? To see just how much we admire and esteem Magneto the Grey, who was ROBBED of the 1998 Best Actor Oscar for Gods and Monsters, watch this space for updates on McKellen Me Softly: To Sir Ian with Love, coming May 2014.
