4
votes
Ian McKellen does relevant Shakespeare on Stephen Colbert
Link information
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- 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
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).