I tried to trick him with “All that is gold does not glitter” which is from Tolkien but echoes The Merchant of Venice’s “All that glisters is not gold”. McKellen spotted the trap but still shared some Lord of the Rings thoughts.
Though working his way through a bowl of soup during the interview, McKellen was getting into the concept, calling for, “Next quote!” after each answer.
I ended with the obvious from Hamlet.
“Ha ha ha!” he laughed. “It seems to me that line is this question: is it better to be, not just to exist but totally be… or not?
“The choice is between being absolutely fulfilled and being so unfulfilled that you might as well be dead. Stop thinking – do! Act! BE!”
Ian McKellen is definitely a BE-er.
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In the years since, his work rate has been impressive for an octogenarian – or anybody at any age. Work is where McKellen feels most fulfilled, which is why news of his accident was so concerning. He clearly loves and needs to do what he does.
McKellen agreed to speak to Big Issue as one of the few engagements he’s carried out since his fall, and he expressed concern and solidarity with our vendors during our conversation.
It had felt right to pick up where we’d left off last time to see if his attitude towards life and living had changed.
To be or not to be?
“What did I say then, I suppose ‘to be’. I still think that.”
In the years that have passed, Ian McKellen has played Hamlet again on stage, adapted into a brilliant film set around the pandemic-locked-down Theatre Royal in Windsor.
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“I noticed something I hadn’t before,” McKellen said. “He answers his question much later in the play when he accepts the challenge of a fight – a friendly fight, he thinks – with Laertes.
“His friend Horatio is saying, there’s something wrong here, don’t do it. And he says oh well, ‘If it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all’.
“And then he says: ‘Let be.’ Oh! To be or not to be? Let be.”
This week in our magazine and online we bring the concluding part of the More Than One Story series of short films from Cardboard Citizens that prove the power of the arts to highlight problems and search for solutions.
And we launch our search for Changemakers 2025. Now an annual celebration of people across the country ready and prepared to make the world a better place – and we want you to be involved.
Let’s recognise those who don’t wait for a problem to overwhelm before trying to tackle it – and learn lessons from them.
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Can we be the change, be a force for good, just be? That is the question.
Steven MacKenzie is deputy editor of the Big Issue. Follow him on Twitter.
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