33
votes
Ian McKellen does relevant Shakespeare on Stephen Colbert
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Title
- "There's Nothing I Enjoy More Than Acting In The Theater" - Ian McKellen EXTENDED INTERVIEW
- Authors
- The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
- Duration
- 26:40
- Published
- Feb 5 2026
As Shakespeare is out of copyright
"Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise
Hath chid down all the majesty of England;
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
Their babies at their backs with their poor luggage,
Plodding to the ports and coasts for transportation,
And that you sit as kings in your desires,
Authority quite silenced by your brawl,
And you in rough of your opinions clothed;
What had you got? I'll tell you: you had taught
How insolence and strong hand should prevail,
How order should be quelled; and by this pattern
Not one of you should live an aged man,
For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,
With self same hand, self reasons, and self right,
Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes
Would feed on one another.
O, desperate as you are,
Wash your foul minds with tears, and those same hands,
That you like rebels lift against the peace,
Lift up for peace, and your unreverent knees,
Make them your feet to kneel to be forgiven!
You'll put down strangers,
Kill them, cut their throats, possess their houses,
And lead the majesty of law in liom,
To slip him like a hound. Say now the king
(As he is clement, if th' offender mourn)
Should so much come to short of your great trespass
As but to banish you, whether would you go?
What country, by the nature of your error,
Should give you harbor? go you to France or Flanders,
To any German province, to Spain or Portugal,
Nay, any where that not adheres to England,—
Why, you must needs be strangers: Would you be pleased
To find a nation of such barbarous temper,
That, breaking out in hideous violence,
Would not afford you an abode on earth,
Whet their detested knives against your throats,
Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God
Owed not nor made not you, nor that the claimants
Were not all appropriate to your comforts,
But chartered unto them, what would you think
To be thus used? this is the strangers case;
And this your mountainish inhumanity."
But nothing beats Shakespeare being performed. This is very much worth a watch.
That was a powerful performance, delivered with passion and decades of skill, at a time when it is so very needed.
Good on him. This is the power of the arts, the very real and critically important value they bring to society, and as is mentioned in the top comment there on YouTube, a quite obvious example of why those who would seek to seize and abuse power push so hard to suppress the arts.
Never underestimate the power of words.
It's a brilliant and moving performance on a topic that is now, as ever, so relevant.
Though I have to wonder what good words will do but pull at the hearts of those who already agree?
Especially on a topic such as immigration, in which those who are so easily tricked into thinking it the cause of all their problems also happen to be those for whom the education systems seem to have fallen short.
I don't see your garden variety bigot or xenophobe listening with rapt attention to such relatively complex speech as Shakespeare, but maybe I am only pessimistic. Perhapse from the mouth of one so widely loved, so large in pop-culture, it might demand more attention?
There are many people who, for various and different reasons, and to various and different degrees of commitment and certainty, approve of and support the brutality that ICE is inflicting.
They are all human beings, all different in various ways.
Not every single one is beyond the ability to consider, to feel concern about their choices, to worry, to change their minds.
This will not convince them all. This will not fail to convince at least some.
The rise of an authoritarian power structure, especially as it is in the process of seizing and consolidating power, requires a sufficient base of the populace to believe in and approve of what they are doing.
That base is shrinking. It has been shrinking. Where I used to see public signs of support for trump in the form of trucks with flags and bumper stickers and signs, I now see much fewer. Many fewer people, at least where I am to see it, show public support for trump.
EDIT: I also wanted to add that many online spaces are subject to various manipulations to influence perception, and many in positions of wealth and power behind US tech and media companies have either capitulated to, or are actively supporting the regime. There's plenty of places online that create the perception of a majority approving of and supporting what is happening. I have greater trust for the evidence of my eyes. END EDIT
This is a marathon, and we simply need to keep doing what we can, when we can, and take care of ourselves and our neighbors so we can continue for the long haul. It's only if we give up that we lose - which is why so much of the actions and propaganda out there is trying to convince us that there is no point in trying - because they really, REALLY want us to stop trying.
They wouldn't be putting so much effort into convincing us to stop trying if all that we are doing was not a real and effective resistance.
Yes well put.
I see a lot of comments online that are in despair about the whole situation with Trump.
One common one is that "this won't end when Trump is gone".
Well, duh.
On this Earth, every day is a battle for survival. Your own body is constantly and mostly invisibly fighting against decay and microbes and viruses even when you seem to be at peace. There will always be dangers and struggles. We have to fight every day, whether it's against Trump or some other authoritarians who are working tirelessly to take rights away that were earned by our forefathers with sweat and blood.
Words make us feel less alone. Here we are, sitting in 2025, knowing that Shakespeare commented on the issue 400 years ago. In between, we had some good times where we did take care of our neighbours and welcomed the stranger. This gives us hope that we will do so again. And when we run into trouble again, we will have these words and we will have Sir Ian's performance, and words that we create today to hopefully comfort those who must wait again.
I don't know why I find this so amusing, but well played.
This was a fantastic segment overall.
Ian McKellen (Gandalf, Magneto) on Stephen Colbert the other night. I love this guy; I'd happily watch him trying to sell me toothpaste.
But this interview has an epic ending. The whole thing is good, but apparently, McKellen is (one of?) the only living person to originate a Shakespearean character ... which ... what?!?
Shakespeare wrote a character, some dialogue, for someone else's play, that was never performed ("it was a bit seditious") ... not until 1964, and Ian McKellen got to be the first person, ever, to play this Shakespearean character.
That's already hella cool ... but in this interview, he jumps up and does this 400+ year old soliloquy, and it's not just "some stuff Shakespeare wrote"; it is absolutely, searingly relevant ripped-from-the-headlines subject matter.
If you don't have the time or interest for the whole interview, start here ... quick 30-second funny anecdote, punchline, raucous laughter, and then they roll right into the Shakespeare stuff.
And yeah, it is Shakespeare, so some challenging English, but FYI, the youtube auto-generated subtitles are actually pretty good (presumably, the AI has been trained on all 37 of his public domain plays).
Thank you for posting this, as I like Colbert but I don't always watch all of his stuff, and they clearly buried the lead on this videos thumbnail and title. That was an incredible piece of writing performed by an incredible actor. I'm sending this to everyone I know.
I haven't confirmed this ... but the Shakespeare performance may not have even made it onto television.
This is the extended, "Internet-only" interview. A big chunk of it must have been cut to fit the on-TV time-limit; IDK what parts were cut, but just from the cues from Colbert, it looks like they probably wrapped it up before the soliloquy.
Damn that sucks if they cut it for time, it was a moving performance. I love Ian Mckellen, and wish more saw this recitation. It's very relevant.
As I had expected, someone with more in depth Shakespeare knowledge than I quickly put together a breakdown to more closely examine this speech: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUcORUZDefa/?l=1
Great find! Here it is on YouTube for people who avoid Meta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsbW-3pTvhA